“Some of our customers in trouble, Mr. Hardy?” asked the manager, when the great detective tossed the red wig on his desk.

“Not yet. But one of your customers will be in trouble if I can ever trace the purchaser of this wig.”

The manager picked it up. He inspected it carefully and frowned.

“We are not, as you know, a wig-making firm,” he said. “That is, the wig department is a very small side line with us.”

“The very reason I thought it would be easier to trace this,” replied Mr. Hardy. “If you turned out thousands of them every year it might be more difficult. You sell to an exclusive theatrical trade, I believe.”