It called to mind very forcibly, however, the tale that McManus had told him of the rifling of Wing’s desk, and caused him to take a professional view of the incident. He had said at the time that a pair of trained eyes would have seen something of importance. He was thus placed on his mettle to prove his boast. In fact, there was little to see. It was evident that the intruder had come by a window opening on to the roof of a long porch. A dusty footprint on the carpet under the window, pointing inward, proved this, and Trafford was able to find traces along the roof to a hall window, but the returning tracks were not traceable. He was not so much offended at the liberty taken with his property as by the implication on his sagacity, in the expectation of finding anything he preferred should remain unfound. He had his suspicions as to the person who had ransacked Wing’s desk, and it was a satisfaction to be given an opportunity to test that suspicion by this later act. If he could bring it home to the possible culprit in the former case, he felt that a very considerable advance would be made. It was true that the method smacked a trifle of seeking facts with which to sustain a preconceived opinion, rather than permitting facts to lead up to judgment; but strict adherence to rule was not always possible, and this appeared a case in which exception was to be made. Because, however, of this yielding to temptation, possibly, it troubled him more to discover that the assumed trespasser on Wing’s desk could by no means be the culprit in the present case, for it was beyond controversy that the suspected individual had not been within many miles of the Millbank hostelry at the hour of the intrusion. It might be a touch of cunning, but the alibi was not to be questioned. None the less, here was the fact that Wing’s desk was broken open because he was believed to be in possession of certain papers of a compromising character, and that when it was believed that these papers had come into the possession of the detective, his room and papers were in turn ransacked. That there was connection of cause and effect between the facts was scarcely to be doubted, even though it was not as simple as he had at first supposed to establish it.