“By the diamond safe?” suggested Jimmie.
“Yes. Well, there’s a man wanted for robbing a safe full of placer gold up on Great Bear lake. Somehow he got out of the country.
“Two things are strange about that.” Tom paused for emphasis. “One is that the owner of that mine has his offices right here in this city, the other is that the description of the man fits Stumps Sharpe, one of the big-time crooks I’m looking for. He has two fingers off his left hand. So has Stumps.”
“Two fingers off,” Jimmie started up. “So had the man in the old house!”
“Old house?” said Tom. “What man? What house?”
“I haven’t had a chance to tell you,” said Jimmie. “It was like this——”
He went on to tell of his strange experience with John looking into the old house at night, of the invisible man with hands of an artist or a card-shark, the four white balls, the diamonds, the bag of gold nuggets and all the rest.
“And here’s the stub of the match they used,” he concluded, digging into his pocket.
“Same kind of a match!” Tom became greatly excited. “That must be Stumps. What do you know about that! Using that old house for a meeting place! You and John may be a lot of help to us.”
“That’s what I thought,” Jimmie agreed. “I’ve got a trap set.”