But the search, minute and detailed as the circumstances allowed, brought small result. In Mrs. Gertstein’s room there was evidence that she had hurriedly packed a couple of bags, and downstairs in the room where Labar had been received by Mrs. Gertstein and where Hughes had interrupted them, there was a pile of burnt papers in the grate.

“I evidently did not knock all the wits out of Larry,” said Labar. “ Mrs. Gertstein would not have thought of that by herself. She has been destroying her correspondence.”

He bent to examine the ashes, and shook his head. There are methods of piecing together and preserving even burnt papers if they are not too far gone. But these had apparently been stirred again and again with a poker till they were little but impalpable ash. The detective again discerned the hand of Larry. It was this kind of forethought that had aided to give that crook immunity for so long.