“Can’t you do it yourself?” asked Wolcott.
“I don’t know a thing about tools,” lamented Salter.
“Neither do I,” confessed Lindsay in turn. “I’ll tell you who can help us,” he added after a pause, as the incident of the trip to Eastham suddenly occurred to him. “Laughlin! He’s a corker with tools—almost as good as a carpenter.”
“Will you ask him?” suggested Salter, dubiously.
“Certainly! I’ll send him round to you.”
Laughlin presented himself that very afternoon at Salter’s room, and made his examination.
“It’ll be dead easy,” he said in a reassuring tone.
“Must you go into Marchmont’s room in order to fix it?” Salter asked uneasily.
“No, I can do everything from here. All you have to do is to put two long strips across the opening underneath the trap-door and screw them tight to the door. That’ll prevent his lifting it up. Then we’ll nail some cleats on the sides of the joists and tack boards to the cleats so as to fill up the hole in the ceiling of the closet.”
Salter pretended to understand. “Can you come Thursday afternoon? Mrs. Winter and her niece who helps with the housework are going to a church club meeting at three o’clock, and the house will be clear.”