“Yes; you see, Doctor, we must reconstruct the matter like this. Betty came back to the house alone. She came in the front door with her father’s key. Now, she must have been attacked or kidnapped then and there. I mean whoever did it,—and we have to assume somebody did do it,—was in the house waiting. Well—say he was,—for the moment. Then, say Betty put up a fight, which of course she would, then she was carried off through the kitchen by means of the secret passage, which we have got to find! She had the yellow pillow in her hands for some reason,—can’t say what—and she dropped it on the kitchen floor,—or maybe the villain used the pillow to stifle the girl’s screams.”
“Go on,” said Doctor Varian, briefly.
“Then, owing to the girl’s struggles, the string of beads round her neck broke, and scattered over the floor.”
“Only part of them.”
“Yes; the others stayed with her, or were picked up by the kidnappers.”
“More than one?”
“I think two. For, when Mr Varian arrived upon the scene, one of them turned on him,—and killed him,—while there must have been another to hold Betty. It is possible there was only one, but I doubt it.”
“And you think the concealed entrance is through the kitchen?”
“That, or the cellar. Anyway, there is one, and it must be found! It was used the night Martha was killed,—it was used the night North disappeared,—why, man, it must be there,—and I must find it!”
“True enough, and I hope you will.”