"No; I don't think he was. I heard him whistling down at the bottom.
There was a light in this room then, and it was put out; or it might
have been put out just before I heard him whistling."

"How long was he in here before you came in?" was asked.

"Oh, about half a minute, I reckon."

"Not long enough to make all this muss with the papers?"

"Of course not. He couldn't do all this in half a minute."

"Then you think that if he did this at all he did it before he
whistled on the stairs. That he did it and went back, to indicate
that he had just entered the building?"

"That's just it, but I'm not sayin' he did it, mind you, Ned."

"Whoever did this took plenty of time for it," said Nestor, turning
to George. "Will you tell me where you spent the evening, and with
whom?"

Fremont told of the meeting of the Black Bear Patrol, of the plans
which had been made at the club-room, and of his parting with Frank
Shaw at the corner.

"Frank will know what time it was when he left me," said the boy,
hopefully, "and the taxicab driver will know what time it was when he
left me at the door of the building. That ought to settle it."