I spoke to her and pointed to Dad’s room. There I found him lying on the couch, drugged with chloroform.”
“They placed him on the couch, did they?”
“Oh, no, sir, the thieves didn’t take that trouble. Pedro was there before I entered the room, and it was he that did that. He had ’phoned for the doctor, too, before I got into the room.”
“He was chasing the thieves?” asked Ned.
“Why, yes. He was just ahead of me at the front door.”
“Then how did he get back and do so much before you reached the study?”
“I opened the front door and looked out for a couple of minutes,” was the reply. “I was rattled, of course, and don’t know how long I stood there, but I remember seeing two men running down the street. If I had known then that they had my emerald necklace, I’d have chased them and roared until the police came up and stopped them.”
“Then you came right in?”
“Yes; right to the corridor where I found the maid lying on the floor.”
“And you remained with your father until the doctor came, and then went back to your room? It was then that you discovered the loss of the emerald necklace?”
“Yes, I missed it when I came back.”
“You saw only two intruders?” asked Ned.
“There were only two.”
“And these two ran down the staircase just ahead of you?”
“Yes; they went down in about one leap.”
“Now, was the necklace in the safe when you went to it?”
“I am certain that it was.”
“You saw it there?”
“I saw the case in which it was enclosed.”
“And the case was gone when you returned?”
“Yes; oh, the necklace was taken from the safe during my absence, all right.”
“Yet the two men were ahead of you, and went out of the street door before you reached the lower landing?”
Frank’s face showed that the idea presented by Nestor was new to him. He had never considered that feature of the case. In fact, he had been so excited that he had not thought logically of the circumstances surrounding the theft.
“Well,” he said, “I reckon I need a hired man to do my thinking for me. Why didn’t that idea get into my thick head before?”
“Are you still certain that the necklace was in the safe when you left the room?” asked Ned, with a smile.
“Yes; I am dead sure of that. Why,” he added, “there must have been a man that I did not see. Wonder why he didn’t give me a clip on the head.”
“Someone will come here an’ steal you, some day,” grinned Jimmie.
“I don’t doubt it,” replied Frank. “Now, where do you think the other man was?” he asked, turning to Ned.
Ned arose and went into the sleeping room, from which opened a bathroom and a large closet. There was a door opening into the sleeping room from the corridor, the apartment being of the same length, east and west, as the sitting room. The closet opened from the sleeping room, and also from the bathroom.
“What do you find here?” asked Frank, following him into the closet and through into the bathroom.
“The third man might have been hiding in here,” Ned replied. “When were you in this bathroom last?” he added, looking carefully about the place.
“Not since early in the afternoon.”
“The suite was unoccupied all the afternoon?”
“Yes; I am rarely here in the afternoon.”
“What time did you come up here after dinner?”
“It was probably eight o’clock, for Dad was telling a rather interesting story at table, and we sat a long time. Mother is away on a visit to the Pacific coast.”
“And your father went to his room then?”
“Yes; he said he had some work to do.”
“His room, also, was unoccupied all the afternoon?”
“Yes; it must have been.”
“Who is usually about the lower part of the house during the afternoon?”
“No one when mother is away.”
“Do you know whether anything was taken from your father’s room?”
“Why, I haven’t heard that feature of the case discussed. We can soon find out by asking him.”
“Gee!” cried Jimmie. “What would they want to go an’ dope him for if there wasn’t something in his room they wanted?”
“That is a very pertinent question,” Lieutenant Gordon remarked. “It certainly seems that the thieves came here for something besides the emerald necklace.”
“Meaning the papers?” asked Ned, with a laugh.
“Meaning the papers, of course,” was the reply. “I am still of the opinion that the theft of the necklace was only incidental.”
“It begins to look that way to me,” observed Frank. “As Jimmie says, what would they attack father for unless they wanted to search his room?”
“You know about the papers?” asked the lieutenant.
“Yes, indeed. They constituted the subject of the interesting story Dad was telling me at table to-night.”
“Did he tell you what they contained?” asked Ned.
“He did not. He told me only what they dealt with.”
“He believes there is a plot against the completion of the Panama canal?”
“Oh, yes; he is quite certain of it.”
“Did he mention the parties he suspected?”
“He refused to do so. I can’t understand why he should refuse. Can you?”
“I think I can appreciate his position,” replied Ned.
“Great Scott!” cried Frank. “Do you think the agents of the men we are to grapple with in the Canal Zone have been in this house to-night? If so, it looks like they were looking us up, instead of our being after them.”
“Where is this man Pedro?” asked Ned, not answering the question.
“He was in the study when I left, a few moments ago.”
“Then we will go down there. I want to ask him a few questions.”
At the foot of the staircase, they heard the telephone ringing, and Frank went into the closet. When he came out again he seemed excited and unnerved.
“I guess there’s something more than the necklace at stake to-night,” he said, “for Dad’s rooms in the newspaper building have been ransacked. I guess we won’t have to go down to Gatun to lock horns with the men who are in this plot against Uncle Sam. If the Gatun dam was in New York, they might have blown it up to-night, for all that has been done to thwart them.”
“Well, we’ve just got to work on the case,” grinned Jimmie.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MAN IN THE CLOSET
“If you take my advice,” Ned said to Frank, as they reached the study door, “you won’t say anything to your father about the trouble at the office until we have talked with him concerning the raid on the house. He might rush off to the newspaper building immediately, without answering our questions about the visit to his room.”
“That is just what he would do,” Frank replied.
When the boys entered the study,