Armitage seized it and glanced up and down the various items.
"Bully work, Mr. Jackson!" He looked up with a sigh of relief. "Everything seems correct. George! That takes a load off my mind. Let's see." He went down the list with his finger. "I understand you, don't I?" he said, handing the sheet to the storekeeper.
"Understand?"
"I mean, this is a list taken from the tally sheet of parts, all of which you have found to be in the office? In other words," he added rapidly, "everything that appears on this sheet is now, at the present time, inside this office?"
"Yes—everything, except—" the storekeeper paused an instant, looking at Armitage with sudden doubt.
"Except what?" cried the officer impatiently.
"Why, that special core of the magnetic control. You have that, haven't you? It is n't in the shop."
"Is n't in the shop! Well, where the devil is it then?"
"Why," exclaimed the storekeeper, "no one ever handled that but you. Not even Yeasky. You never let any one even see it. I remember how careful you have been about that."
"I know," Armitage rose from his chair. "But it was never out of the shop. It was always in the big safe. Have you looked there?" He turned to Jackson hopefully.