The doctor’s answer put an end to every remaining hope I may have cherished.
“She not only touched but opened it. I saw the lid rise and heard a whirr. What is the matter, sir?”
“Nothing,” I made haste to say—“that is, nothing I can communicate just now. This woman must be followed,” I signified to the officer, and was about to rush from the room when my eye fell on the table where the box stood.
“See!” said I, pointing to a fine wire protruding from a small hole in the center of its upper surface; “this box had connection with some point outside of this room.”
The doctor’s face flushed, and for the first time he looked a trifle foolish.
“So I perceive now,” said he, “The workman who put up this box evidently took liberties in my absence. For that I was not paid.”
“This wire leads where?” asked the officer.
“Rip up the floor and see. I know no other way to find out.”
“But that would take time, and we have not a minute to lose,” said I, and was disappearing for the second time when I again stopped. “Doctor,” said I, “when you consented to harbor this box under such peculiar conditions and allowed yourself to receive such good pay for a service involving so little inconvenience to yourself, you must have had some idea of the uses to which so mysterious an article would be put. What did you suppose them to be?”
“To tell you the truth, I thought it was some new-fangled lottery scheme, and I have still to learn that I was mistaken.”