"I developed muscle in persuading him to let it go in the observer's cockpit for fear of it fouling the warping-controls. No wonder he stuck to it. War Secrets!"
"It is plain you haven't glanced at the Evening Wire. It tells the story rather pithily, beginning with an outbreak of fire on Tuesday night at Gwyll Castle, Denbigh, caused by a short-circuit in the electric-lighting apparatus of the North Tower."
He went on:
"I waste no time telling you, for all that's possible has been done now in setting our agents on the track of the flying thief! The North Tower at Gwyll holds the priceless Clanronald library, and the Muniment Chamber, where they bottle up the original MSS. detailing the War Plan of the old Earl. The short-circuit that set up the blaze was—the kind that any amateur can arrange for with rubber gloves, a pair of pliers and a bit of soda-water wire."
"Is it known who the amateur was?"
"There is reason to suspect one Heir Rassing, an under-librarian of German nationality, who behaved like a hero, according to the local Fire Brigade! He it was, who suggested—Clanronald being absent on a yachting-cruise in the Fjords of Norway—that the contents of the Muniment Chamber should be transferred to the strong-room in the basement of the East Wing. He superintended the removal, armed with knowledge, enthusiasm, and a large-sized Webley Scott revolver, with which he volunteered to keep solitary guard till morning, outside the strong-room door!"
"And when daylight came—" hinted Sherbrand.
"It discovered the zealous Herr Rassing to be missing, and a corresponding hiatus in the treasures of the Muniment Chamber. Item, a sharkskin case inlaid with ivory figures, Japanese, antique and valuable,—containing the original diagrams—chemical formulæ and so on—embodying the famous Plan."
Sherbrand asked.
"Was it as tremendous as they tell one?"