of any had it been all the evening since about seven how is it then that the woman who came into by the naval treaty the room about nine left no traces with her muddy boots i am glad you raise the point it occurred to me at the time the are in the habit of taking their boots at the s office and putting on list slippers that is very clear there were no marks then though the night was a wet one the chain of events is certainly one of extraordinary interest what did you do next we examined the room also there was no possibility of a secret door and the windows are quite thirty feet from the ground both of them were fastened on the inside the carpet prevents any possibility of a trap door and the ceiling is of the ordinary white washed kind i will pledge my life that whoever stole my papers could only have come through the door how about the fireplace they use none there is a stove the hangs from the wire just to the right of my desk whoever rang it must have come right up by r of to the desk to do it but why should any criminal wish to ring the bell it is a most mystery certainly the incident was unusual what were your next steps you examined the room i presume to see if the intruder had left any traces � any end or dropped glove or or other trifle there was nothing of the sort no smell well we never thought of that ah a scent of tobacco would have been worth a great deal to us in such an investigation i never smoke myself so i think i should have observed it if there had been any smell of there was absolutely no due of any kind the only fact was that the s wife � mrs was the had hurried out of the place he could give no explanation save that it was about the time when the woman always went home the policeman and i agreed that our best by the naval treaty plan would be to seize the woman before she could get rid of the papers that she had them the alarm had reached scotland yard by this time and mr the came round at once and took up the case with a great deal of energy we hired a and in half an hour we were at the address which had been given to us a young woman opened the door who proved to be mrs s eldest daughter her mother had not come back yet and we were shown into the front room to wait about ten minutes later a knock came at the door and here we made the one serious mistake for which i blame myself instead of opening the door ourselves we allowed the girl to do so we heard her say mother there are two men in the house waiting to see you and an instant afterwards we heard the of feet rushing down the passage flung open the door and we both ran into the back room or kitchen but the woman had got there before us she stared at us with defiant eyes by t of and then suddenly me an expression of absolute astonishment came over her face � why if it isn t mr of the office she cried come come who did you think we were when you ran away from us asked my companion i thought you were the said she � we ve had some trouble with a � that s not quite good enough answered we have reason to believe that you have taken a paper of importance from the foreign office and that you ran in here to dispose of it you must come back with us to scotland yard to be searched � it was in vain that she protested and resisted a four was brought and we all three drove back in it we had first made an examination of the kitchen and especially of the kitchen fire to see whether she might have made away with the papers during the instant that she was alone there were no signs however of any ashes or scraps by the naval treaty l l when we reached scotland yard she was handed over at once to the female i waited in an agony of suspense until she came back with her report there were no signs of the papers then for the first time the horror of my situation came in its full force upon me hitherto i had been acting and action had thought i had been so confident of the treaty at once that i had not dared to think of what would be the consequence if i failed to do so but now there was nothing more to be done and i had leisure to realize my position it was horrible there would tell you that i was a nervous sensitive boy at school it is my nature i thought of my uncle and of his in the cabinet of the shame which i had brought upon him upon myself upon connected with me what though i was the victim of an extraordinary accident no allowance is made for accidents where interests are at stake i was ruined hopelessly ruined i don t know what i did i fancy i must have made a scene i have a of ii by of dim recollection of a group of officials who crowded round me endeavouring to soothe me one of them drove down with me to and saw me into the train i believe that he would have come all the way had it not been that dr who lives near me was going down by that very train the doctor most kindly took charge of me and it was well 