“An effort was made by her and her friends to get out of the bargain entered into with me and a suit to recover the models from me was begun.
“At this time a new difficulty arose, and that was the doubt and difficulty as to the procedure in obtaining the patents. There had been, upon the part of my deceased friend, no assignment to me, and who was to act in obtaining those patents was a question.
“I was advised by my lawyer that the executors of the estate were the ones to move in it and that executor was the widow, who was in an antagonistic position to me, and refused to take the necessary steps.
“But the secrets of that invention—all the drawings, models, statements, papers relating to it—were in my possession.
“I carefully guarded these, going to the lengths of having a case built which should accommodate and keep safe all of them, under lock and key.
“And then I sat down to await developments.
“Various efforts have been made by the widow, through her lawyer, and by a number of promoters who, at least, know the value of the invention, to obtain possession of these things, but I have defeated every effort until now.
“That case, containing the drawings, models and all the papers relating to it, was stolen from my house last night.”
“And you desire to retain me to recover that case?” asked Nick.
“That is my purpose and the reason of my call.”