“I’ve got such a lot to tell,” cried Jane.
“First,” said Carter, “just where did you put that cipher message when you put it back?”
“What!” cried the girl, her face blanching, “wasn’t it there? Didn’t you find it?”
Carter shook his head.
“It must be there,” she insisted. “Are you sure you looked in the right book—the fifth book from the end on the second shelf on the up-town side of the store.”
“It’s not there. I examined every book there, on the shelves above and below and at the other end, too.”
“The clerk in the store, that girl—must have hidden it,” cried Jane with conviction.
“That’s not likely. She’s an English girl—from Liverpool. She has three brothers fighting on the Allies’ side. We can leave her out of it.”
“Who else could have taken it?”
“There’s only one answer,” said Carter slowly and impressively. “Some one went into that store between the time you copied the message and the time I met you at the drug-store. You told me no one but a couple of girls had entered. Was there any one else? Think—think!”