"I'm calling it back to my mind. Roger helped me out of the train. O'Reilly was out already. He stood on the platform, looking for someone--or so it seemed. We went quite close to him, but not close enough for even the smartest pickpocket in America to steal the envelope from Roger." "Where was the envelope then?" the girl wanted to know. "In an inside breast pocket of Roger's coat; not an overcoat. It was September. The weather was hot." "Wouldn't it be easy for any one looking for the envelope to see that Mr. Sands had something thick and long in an inside breast pocket, and suspect what it was?" "Any one might suspect. No one could be sure. It would have shown more plainly if Roger had worn his coat buttoned. He didn't, on purpose." "Still, his coat not being buttoned would make it easier to steal the envelope, if somebody very clever got a chance to try." "Perhaps. But O'Reilly could never have done such a thing. It would take a trained thief." "Can people send off telegrams from those Limited trains?" Clo took up her catechism again. "Yes, of course they can." "Would there have been time for this O'Reilly chap to wire Chicago, after he followed you on board the train, and have a man meet him?" "Yes, plenty of time." "Well, what if he wired to some detective people, and told them to send him the 'smartest pickpocket in America'?" "But ... the police couldn't ... wouldn't ... do such a thing!" "I don't mean the real police," Clo explained. "Haven't you often read books about private detectives? I have. They might get reformed thieves to work for them. Can you remember what O'Reilly did next, after you both passed him on the platform?" "No. I didn't look back." "You don't know, then, whether the person he seemed to expect ever turned up?" Beverley shook her head. "Roger and I went straight ahead to a newsstand where _I_ expected to meet a person. Two or three minutes after we passed O'Reilly we were mixed up in a big crowd, almost fighting our way through...." "Oh, a big crowd!" Clo broke in. "A chance for that pickpocket. Suppose he came the minute you had turned your backs on O'Reilly, and he sent his trained thief after you, hot foot, to get that envelope?" "Ah, but you've forgotten something!" cried Beverley. "A thief might get the envelope: I'll admit that. But how could he have another one exactly like it, with the same seals, the same monogram, to put into Roger's pocket, when he took the original?" "He could only have it if O'Reilly could have given it to him. Could he have done that?" Suddenly Beverley began to see. A vivid idea sprang into her head, and was imaged in her eyes. "You've thought of something!" Clo exclaimed. "You see how O'Reilly might have got the seal with the monogram, and the gold wax, and an envelope like the one you had?" "Oh, yes. I do see!" Beverley groaned. "He could have brought the things from--from.... But never mind. That part's nothing to you."