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would probably never have been aroused."

Hall Pycroft shook his clinched hands in the air.
"Good Lord!" he cried, "while I have been fooled in
this way, what has this other Hall Pycroft been doing
at Mawson's? What should we do, Mr. Holmes? Tell me
what to do."

"We must wire to Mawson's."

"They shut at twelve on Saturdays."

"Never mind. There may be some door-keeper or
attendant--"

"Ah yes, they keep a permanent guard there on account
of the value of the securities that they hold. I
remember hearing it talked of in the City."

"Very good; we shall wire to him, and see if all is
well, and if a clerk of your name is working there.
That is clear enough; but what is not so clear is why
at sight of us one of the rogues should instantly walk
out of the room and hang himself."

"The paper!" croaked a voice behind us. The man was
sitting up, blanched and ghastly, with returning
reason in his eyes, and hands which rubbed nervously
at the broad red band which still encircled his
throat.

"The paper! Of course!" yelled Holmes, in a paroxysm
of excitement. "Idiot that I was! I thought so much
of our visit that the paper never entered my head for
an instant. To be sure, the secret must be there."
He flattened it out upon the table, and a cry of
triumph burst from his lips. "Look at this, Watson,"
he cried. "It is a London paper, an early edition of
the Evening Standard. Here is what we want. Look at
the headlines: 'Crime in the City. Murder at Mawson &
Williams's. Gigantic attempted Robbery. Capture of
the Criminal.' Here, Watson, we are all equally
anxious to hear it, so kindly read it aloud to us."

It appeared from its position in the paper to have
been the one event of importance in town, and the
account of it ran in this way:

"A desperate attempt at robbery, culminating in the
death of one man and the capture of the criminal,
occurred this afternoon in the City. For some time
back Mawson & Williams, the famous financial house,
have been the guardians of securities which amount in
the aggregate to a sum of considerably over a million
sterling. So conscious was the manager of the
responsibility which devolved upon him in consequence
of the great interests at stake that safes of the very
latest construction have been employed, and an armed
watchman has been left day and night in the building.
It appears that last week a new clerk named Hall
Pycroft was engaged by the firm. This person appears
to have been none other that Beddington, the famous
forger and cracksman, who, with his brother, had only
recently emerged from a five years' spell of penal
servitude. By some means, which are not yet clear, he
succeeded in winning, under a false name, this official
position in the office, which he utilized in order to
obtain moulding of various locks, and a thorough
knowledge of the position of the strong room and the
safes.

"It is customary at Mawson's for the clerks to leave
at midday on Saturday.

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