He lifted the other garments out and then the books, revealing the remaining articles wrapped loosely in newspaper. He felt about among them until he found the clock, and as he took it up the paper fell from it and partially opened as it dropped to the floor.
The clock looked all right; its works might be damaged, but at least it was not smashed!
With a sigh of thankfulness George stooped to pick up the paper, when the printed line upon the top margin caught his eye.
“Daily Bulletin, June 1st.”
That was an odd coincidence! His thoughts strayed back to the notes he had taken from Millard’s disclosures in the Horton case. How many thousands of those newspapers were scattered throughout the city and its environs! Somewhere, someone had put a copy identical with this to its sinister use. Poor Horton!
These were only the outside sheets, too! That was funny! The inside ones must be about another package in the trunk, of course. On a sudden impulse George picked up the desk blotter and unwrapped it. Its covering proved to be the outer double page of the ‘Daily Bulletin’ for May 28th! Another of the corresponding dates to those on the papers in Horton’s bag!
By jingo, there was something queer about this! Without consciously following his bewildered train of thought any farther, George took each package one by one from the trunk and unwrapped it carefully, laying the papers in a neat pile. When he had finished and the trunk was empty he took the newspapers to the table, and spreading them out with trembling hands he sorted them.
Four were complete copies of the ‘Bulletin’ for June sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth; the remainder were the outside pages of that paper for——he caught his breath sharply as he examined them——for May twenty-eighth, thirtieth, and thirty-first, June first, third, and fourth! And on each of them was scrawled a rough circle with Storm’s apartment number, “One-A”, within it!
No other scrap of newspaper was visible anywhere, and George knew they had left none about in that living-room in town when they finished packing. Where could the inside pages be?—He must be mistaken in the dates of those papers found in Horton’s bag! His memory had failed him!
With shaking fingers he tore the notebook from his pocket and read the entry, his eyes fairly starting from his head. No, there had been no mistake! The dates were identical!