"And it appears to be getting worse all the time!" "Let me tell my story first," interrupted Britz.

"Mine's an eye-opener!" The three men disposed themselves in comfortable attitudes about the chief's desk, bit the ends off fresh cigars, and prepared for a long interchange of information.
"Well, I discovered where Whitmore spent the six weeks of his absence from business," began Britz.
"Where ?" The chief's face lit with an expression of eagerness.
"In jail," said Britz, and for the life of him he was unable to smother the smile that struggled to his lips.

"Right here in the city," he added.

"In the Tombs." "Well, I'll be hung!" In his astonishment, the chief could think of no adequate exclamation beyond the commonplace one which issued from his widely parted lips.
"Yes," pursued Britz, "Greig and I have been treated to a series of surprises--even now I haven't recovered entirely from my bewilderment." "Well, go ahead and spring them," urged Manning.

"They can't be much more astounding than the one I've bumped into." "In the first place," said Britz, arranging in chronological order in his mind, the incidents which he was about to narrate, "the man that was captured trying to break into the post office at Delmore Park, was Herbert Whitmore.