“You were able to identify it?”
“Beyond any doubt. Yesterday a little girl named Madeleine Moffat disappeared from the playground in the park. There was a sheet of paper in the machine, and on it had already been typed: ‘Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet.’ ”
Professor Dillard’s head sank forward.
“Another insane atrocity! If only I hadn’t waited till last night to warn you——!”
“No great harm has been done,” Vance hastened to inform him. “We found the child in time: she’s out of danger now.”
“Ah!”
“She had been locked in the hall-closet on the top floor of the Drukker house. We had thought she was here somewhere—which is how we came to search your attic.”
There was a silence; then the professor asked:
“What more have you to tell me?”
“Drukker’s note-book containing his recent quantum researches was stolen from his room the night of his death. We found this note-book in the attic with the typewriter.”