I should be obliged if you would kindly forward to Mr. James S. Stephenson, Great Western Railway Goods Station, Morriston Road, Swansea, marked “To be kept till called for,” one of your patent Veda electric duplicators, No. 3, to take brief size. The motor to be wound for 220 volts D.C. and to have a flexible cord to plug into the main. Please have the machine delivered at Swansea not later than 19th inst., as I wish to ship it from there on the following day. I enclose herewith money order value £62.10.0, the price, less discount, as given in your catalogue. Please advise receipt of money and despatch of duplicator to this hotel. Yours faithfully, James S. Stephenson. There were here, French realised, several lines of enquiry. Something might be learned at the Euston Hotel. Unfortunately, the fact that the letter was written on the hotel paper and the reply was to be sent there did not mean that “Stephenson” had stayed there. French remembered his own letter from the Charing Cross Hotel to Dr. Philpot in the Starvel case up in Yorkshire. But enquiries could not be omitted. Then there was the money order. It would be easy to learn the office at which it had been obtained, and there was at least the possibility that the purchaser had been observed. Lastly there was the typewriter. French felt sure that it could be identified from the irregularities of the type. “I may have this letter, I suppose?” he asked. “Of course.” He put the paper slowly away in his pocketbook and then in his careful, competent way began to ask questions. “You sent the receipt and notification of the despatch of the crate to the Euston Hotel?” “Certainly.” “What is the process of despatch? When that order came in to whom did it go?” “Well, I read it first and dropped it into a basket, from which it went automatically to the accounts department. Following the ordinary routine, the money would be collected, and if all was O.K. an order would go to the sales department for the despatch of the goods. When the despatch had taken place a notification in duplicate would be returned to the office, and one copy, with the receipt, would be mailed to the purchaser. The whole thing is, of course, routine, and so far as I know that routine was carried out in this case. But we can see all concerned, if you like.” “That’s just what I would like,” French declared. “Come along, then.” “There’s another thing, Mr. Fogden,” French interposed. “I have told you my business because I wanted your help. But I am anxious that no one else suspects it. If I give out that the duplicator was stolen and that you have employed me to find the thief, will you back up the yarn?” “Certainly. I am naturally anxious to have the affair cleared up. But do you think you can keep your real business secret?” “I can for a time. But that may be long enough for me to get my man.”