"The other House," said Patch calmly.
"What—Cooper's?"
"Of course," said Septimus. "Forward, comrades all!"
They crossed the quadrangle and the playing-fields to the other house of Deepwater College—Cooper's House.
"You were here last term, of course," said Jack Symonds to Patch. "You know your way about?"
"Rather, comrade; like the palm of my hand. Give us a leg up through this window."
Jack obliged him with a shove that nearly sent the investigator on to his head in the passageway beyond. In a little while the four had gained the boot-room, and there a much more cautious examination took place—more cautious because, if Cooper's masters or boys discovered them by any chance, then things would go hard with the intruders.
Inside of an hour the detectives had satisfied themselves that the boots had not been worn by any of the boys of Deepwater College.
"You've drawn another blank, Patchy," said Billy Faraday. "How do you account for this?"
"Account for it?" asked Patch, in wonderment. "What do you mean? This only brings us closer to our solution, as the great Holmes said—"