proceeded downtown to locate Cappy Rick's blue vase.

He proceeded to the block in Sutter Street between Stockton and Powell
Streets, and although he walked patiently up one side of the street and
down the other, not a single vase of any description showed in any shop
window, nor could he find a single shop where such a vase as Cappy had
described might, perchance, be displayed for sale.

"I think the old boy has erred in the co-ordinates of the target," Bill
Peck concluded, "or else I misunderstood him. I'll telephone his house
and ask him to repeat them."

He did, but nobody was at home except a Swedish maid, and all she knew
was that Mr. Ricks was out and the hour of his return was unknown. So
Mr. Peck went back to Sutter Street and scoured once more every shop
window in the block. Then he scouted two blocks above Powell and two
blocks below Stockton. Still the blue vase remained invisible.

So he transferred his search to a corresponding area on Bush Street, and
when that failed, he went painstakingly over four blocks of Post Street.
He was still without results when he moved one block further west and
one further south and discovered the blue vase in a huge plate-glass
window of a shop on Geary Street near Grant Avenue. He surveyed it
critically and was convinced that it was the object he sought.

He tried the door, but it was locked, as he had anticipated it would be.
So he kicked the door and raised an infernal racket, hoping against hope
that the noise might bring a watchman from the rear of the building. In
vain. He backed out to the edge of the sidewalk and read the sign over
the door: