"Indeed!" I cried. "They have got the matter down as close as that, and yet have not solved its mystery? How long is this road?"
"A half mile or so."
I must have looked my disgust, for his hands opened deprecatingly.
"The ground has undergone a thorough search," said he. "Not a square foot in those woods you see on either side of the road, but has been carefully examined."
"And the houses? I see there are three houses on this road."
"Oh, they are owned by most respectable people—most respectable people," he repeated, with a lingering emphasis that gave me an inward shudder. "I think I had the honor of intimating as much to you a few minutes ago."
I looked at him earnestly, and irresistibly drew a little nearer to him over the diagram.
"Have none of these houses been visited by you?" I asked. "Do you mean to say you have not seen the inside of them all?"
"Oh," he replied, "I have been in them all, of course; but a mystery such as we are investigating is not written upon the walls of parlors or halls."
"You freeze my blood," was my uncharacteristic rejoinder. Somehow the sight of the homes indicated on this diagram seemed to bring me into more intimate sympathy with the affair.