Alice can forward the dispatch." Left alone in the room, Jack Witherspoon redoubled his energies, knowing that he might never see the interior again.

Ferris' remark about the picture had strangely attracted his attention.

"That means something," mused the excited Jack.

His hand was on a closet door, and by a strange impulse he opened it quickly.

A picture-case of heavy pasteboard stood there, upright in a corner, and a half-detached label caught his eye.