“So that pointed to young Smith here. If he had a key, he was likely crafty enough not to use it while he was still office boy, because suspicion would almost certainly fall on him. But when he had been shifted to another department, then he could use it, and if he got away unseen, suspicion would point to his successor.”
“Plain as daylight,” said Mr. King.
“I found that there was one other reason that might figure. Smith here has been bullying Willie. He has threatened to beat him the first time he caught him outside alone. So he evidently had hard feelings toward him. That suggested the possibility of theft for the purpose of getting Willie into trouble. I don’t believe he did it for that reason, but there was the possibility, you see.” Sheridan paused to light a cigar.
“I do see,” said Mr. King.
“Again, who would be better able to slip in here unobserved than some one who knew intimately the habits of everybody in the office? He knew how to approach the office so as to avoid observation, and how to get in and out by back ways, if any existed. There was every reason to believe that if Willie Brown didn’t take the papers, Tom Smith did. So I went after Tom Smith.”
“How did you get him?”
“Well, I cleaned spittoons and mopped floors and washed woodwork, and nobody paid any more attention to me than they do to any other scrub men. As a cleaner I could be in the offices after the clerical forces went home. Then I searched. It took me a long time to find that wax. But finally I found it tucked away in a crack far up on the under side of Smith’s desk. Only the most thorough search would have revealed it. When I found the wax I was confident I was on the right trail. When you gave me a duplicate impression in the wax, I knew I was right. The thing that remained was to find the key.”
“How did you ever do it?”
Sheridan chuckled. “I reasoned that, as long as he believed himself unsuspected, Smith would carry the key in his pocket. He might want to put the papers back in the desk or to make another raid. So I had to figure out a way to get that key. One day I was in the court, where trucks drive in, washing things down with a hose. Smith happened to skip out through the court on an errand. I saw him coming and made sure that he got a thorough drenching, particularly from the waist down. Of course I was awfully sorry for the accident and did all I could to make amends. I got some dry clothes quick and helped the lad skin out of his wet ones. You bet I went through his pockets fast. I had that key before the wet trousers were fairly off of him. That was all I needed. It fitted the wax impression exactly. But I let him go for a day or two. I watched him like a hawk. Twice I saw him examining the places where I wet him and where he took off his wet clothes. I knew he was hunting for his key. Finally he came to me and asked me if, in cleaning up, I had found a key. He said he had dropped his latch-key, and he described it.”
Sheridan paused and looked at Smith, who sat with his head down, looking at the floor.