"It beats me how you can do it!" declared the operative, sprawling across the chair and crossing his weary legs. "One or two hours' sleep is never any good. Better keep awake. You remind me of the last rose of Sharon!" "I feel like a house-man in an all-night poker game. What's the use! I'm going over to some bank and get a job as a night watchman, if this keeps up. I can sleep my head off, there." Drew swung in his chair and eyed the papers on his desk. He swiveled as Delaney inquired: "What's the news in the Stockbridge case? I've been asking Marie and Harrigan. They don't seem to know anything except that everybody is out--already." Delaney extended his huge mouth to a cavernous yawn. He fished up his great, silver watch. "What's the news, Chief? Any assignments for me?" "News? There's very little news, Delaney. No good news, yet! I've been busy as a Chinaman on a contract, though. I can't let that matter get cold. It's now or never in this case!" "What does our friend Fosdick say?" "He's all at sea! I've talked with him twice." Drew glanced at the 'phone. "He says the murder was a second Rue Morgue. He can't see any light at all!" "He's come around to our deduction?" "There's no deduction in it!" "He says it's murder?" "Cold, curdling, cunning, crafty murder, Delaney. The coroner said it would have been impossible for a man to shoot himself in the manner Stockbridge was shot. They're right--both of them--and we're right. I'll stake my badge on it! Particularly in view of the two threats. Why, I was there when he was called up and given twelve hours on this earth." Delaney glanced out the window. "Snowing again," he said, "I wonder if there are any footprints in that back yard or alley. Wouldn't that be a clue, Chief?" "To what?" "Well, you told me that the trouble-man said a tall lad climbed the fence near the junction-box and beat it for Fifth Avenue. Maybe that lad left footprints behind." "They're snowed over now!" "But if he made them, couldn't we find them underneath?" Drew's eyes narrowed. He leaned in his chair with a searching glance at Delaney. "How long did you sleep?" he asked sharply. "About thirty minutes, Chief. Mary and the kids woke me up and I couldn't get settled again. I did some thinking." "You must 'ave! That idea about the footprints is a mighty good one. There was first a thaw, then a freeze, then a snow fall which preserved everything. If we wait till spring there might be a set of prints underneath the other sets. Two of our operatives were there. The trouble-man was there. He scraped the connections. If we find a fourth set of prints, that's our man!" "The tall lad?" "Yes, Delaney. We can build a box about the fence and start a thaw of our own. I'll think it over!" "I'll go up and do it, Chief. I can make plaster-casts of all the prints. There's a French system I heard of once. I can find out from Farot over at Headquarters."