Suddenly, as Jimmie looked at this section, his figure stiffened, for all the world like that of a panther who has scented a covey of grouse.
Setting his camera for a close-up, he squinted through the finder, then clicked it three times.
“Mind sitting on the floor and looking at that through this?” he said to Tom as he took a three-inch magnifying glass from his pocket.
“No, I—” Tom hesitated.
“Do your stuff,” Jerry roared in good-natured glee. So Tom posed while Jimmy took his picture.
“All right,” said Jimmie. “I’ll hurry over with the pictures.”
“Tell your friend John to get me on the phone. I’ll give him the details,” said Tom.
Jimmie did a fade-out while Tom and his police friend remained to search for tools that might have been left behind, to study the cigaret stubs and burnt matches on the floor, and the window that had been jimmied, to test everything for possible fingerprints and, in short, to conduct a thorough investigation of a piece of work done by experts in their line.
Needless to say, the Press scored a scoop and Jimmie got his full share of credit. To Tom’s surprise, he saw that instead of the picture of Police Officer Jerry doing his regular stuff, they had used his own picture, the one of him pointing at the broken scrap of steel containing the safe’s lock.
Beneath the picture he read, “Famous young detective discovers valuable clue.”