“It won’t do any good,” said Jacobs in a flat and hopeless voice. “I know this file from A to Z and the papers that came in this afternoon are not here.”
The federal agent paused and looked hard at the filing chief.
“You say they were important papers?”
Jacobs nodded. “They were so important that I refused to trust them to anyone else.”
“You’re sure no one in the department knew these papers were coming through?” insisted the federal agent.
“I can’t be sure,” replied the filing chief, “for there has been talk drifting around the last few days about some important radio discoveries that have been made by the army engineers. But I am sure that no one knew the exact time these papers came over.”
“Was it a complete file on the new discoveries?” asked Merritt Hughes anxiously.
“I don’t know, but from the usual procedure, I would say that it was only a partial file. Just as a precautionary step they usually send the records of new formulas, and developments over in several sections so that it would be almost impossible to take one section and know what it was all about.”
“But you’re not sure about this special file?”
“No, except that it was small; a single sheet of paper in a sturdy manila envelope.”