Footsteps sounded on the stairs and he looked up to see the managing editor appear in the doorway. "What's up, Tim?" asked Carson. "Just trailing a story," replied the flying reporter, "and right now it looks like a mighty slim trail with the scent growing fainter every minute." "Let's hear about it." Tim recounted briefly the arrival of "Mr. Seven" and how he had aroused the interest of the flying reporter. Then he told of the arrival of Jack Sladek and linked the two together. "They're after something in the Cedar river valley and if I could only get the key to the identity of 'Mr. Seven' I might know what to aim at." The possibilities of the story caught the managing editor's vivid imagination. "I'll give you a hand," he said, "you scan the pages on the right; I'll take the ones on the left. You've given me enough description so I ought to be able to recognize your man." Editor and reporter sat down and took up the task together. Another half hour slipped by when Tim stopped suddenly. He looked at the page before him with almost unbelieving eyes. There, staring at him from the middle of a large feature, was the likeness of "Mr. Seven." "Have you found him?" asked Carson. "Yes," said Tim, but the word was automatic. He was reading the caption over the picture and the words, "Grenville Ford, Adventurer and Globe Trotter," burned their way into his mind. This then, was "Mr. G. Seven." "Why that's Ford, the globe trotter. He was with Byrd at the South Pole and with Adamson when he made his round the world flight two years ago." "I'm positive that the man I know as 'Mr. Seven' is Ford," said Tim. "The likeness is unmistakable and you must remember that I have seen 'Mr. Seven' at close range a number of times." "Has anyone else seen him?" "Both Dan Watkins and Ralph," said Tim. "Then get them on the phone and have them come to the office right away." Ralph, roused from a sound sleep, promised to come at once as did the head of the copydesk. Tim heard an exclamation from the managing editor as he replaced the receiver on its hook. "I've found the key to the presence of both Ford and Sladek in the middle west," he said. "Listen to this: "NEW YORK CITY--(Special to the Atkinson _News_)--Adventure is again calling Grenville Ford, world famous adventurer and globe trotter. This time it is the sunken millions in the stone box of the tramp steamer, Southern Queen, which went down in the Caribbean in the fall of 1923. The exact location of the sinking of the Southern Queen has never been known but Ford is believed to have learned the whereabouts of the wreckage and to be making plans for the salvage of the sunken treasure." "But just how does that link up with his visit to Atkinson under an assumed name and the arrival tonight of Jack Sladek with a couple of bodyguards?" asked Tim.