“Yet I’ve no reason to think North faked it,” Wise told himself frankly, “except that that would be an easy way out of it for me! And that message he left looks genuine,—and his watch is a valuable one,—oh, Lord, I am up against it!”
He went downstairs, and learned that Lawrence North’s straw hat still hung on the hall rack. The man must have been forcibly carried off. He couldn’t have walked out without collar, tie or hat! Moreover, the doors were all locked.
It still was necessary to assume a secret exit from the house.
Wise inclined to the hinged door frame, or window frame, but his most careful search failed to reveal any such. He determined to get an expert carpenter to look over the house, feeling that such would be better than an architect.
Crestfallen, dispirited and utterly nonplussed, Wise sat down in the library to think it over.
First, the authorities must be told of North’s disappearance, and all that, but those things he left to Granniss. The mystery was his province.
Acting on a sudden impulse, Wise started off at once for North’s home. This was a good-looking bungalow, of artistic effects and quiet unpretentious charm.
His knock brought the grumpy Joe Mills to the door.
“Whatcha want?” was his surly greeting.
“As I’m here on an important matter, I’ll come inside,” Wise said, and entered the little living-room.