He carefully let the picture go back into its first position. A slight smile flickered on his lips.
He had set the picture at that angle and had marked the wall to correspond. Had any one moved it without replacing it exactly, a clew would have remained.
Paget made a similar examination of a large cigarette box. He opened the box and carefully inspected its interior. Then his attention turned to a partly filled bookrack on the table. He produced a ruler and carefully measured the distance between the end book and the end of the rack.
Table drawers were next. Each one had some trivial feature for which Paget looked. Each drawer met with his satisfaction.
If any one had searched the premises during Paget’s absence, it seemed almost a surety that some trace would have remained. Still, the clubman’s inspection did not cease.
He placed his left hand above a doorway and ran his fingers along until he encountered the projecting corner of an envelope. He drew the envelope from the crack where it was inserted and examined it carefully. The envelope was sealed and bore no signs of having been opened. Paget replaced it with his right hand.
Now, as an afterthought, Paget’s attention turned to the most obvious object in the room — a pile of folded papers in the far corner of a table. He picked up each paper and opened it.
When he reached the fourth, a tense expression came to his face. The paper had opened easily. Paget looked closely near one corner. There he saw a minute mark — so tiny that the keenest eye would not have noticed it without knowing the particular spot.
Paget’s actions became more careful. He opened the next paper with studied precision. Upon it he discovered a similar mark.
PAGET became calmly deliberate. Some one had been in the apartment during his absence. A skilled, careful searcher had gone through all his papers.