‘And there was nothing wrong then?’
‘He lay on his bed in the laird’s chamber. I had just left it. I left him with the watcher of the dead. There was a plate of salt on his breast. The housekeeper, Mrs. Bower, keeps up the old ways. Candles
were burning all round the bed. A fearful waste he would have thought it, poor old man. The devils! If I could get on their track!’ said Logan, clenching his fist.
‘You have found no tracks, then?’
‘None. When I examined the snow there was not a footmark on the roads to the back door or the front—not a footmark on the whole area.’
‘Then the removal of the body from the bedroom was done from within. Probably the body is still in the house.’
‘Certainly it has been taken out by no known exit, if it has been taken out, as I believe. I at once arranged relays of sentinels—men from the coal-pits. But the body is gone; I am certain of it. A fishing-boat went out from the village, Strutherwick, before the dawn. It came into the little harbour after midnight—some night-wandering lover saw it enter—and it must have sailed again before dawn.’
‘Did you examine the snow near the harbour?’
‘I could not be everywhere at once, and I was single-handed; but I sent down the old serving-man, John Bower. He is stupid enough, but I gave him a note to any fisherman he might meet. Of course these people are not detectives.’
‘And was there any result?’