On examining the window the rope was found dangling.
Instantly there was a rush to the strong-room.
The bird was flown.
“Ah!” said Coventry. “I felt there ought to be some one with him, but I didn't like to interfere.”
George the groom and another were mounted on swift horses, and took the road to Hillsborough.
But Cole, with his start of a hundred minutes, was safe in a back slum before they got half way.
What puzzled the servants most was how Cole could have unscrewed the bar, and where he could have obtained the cord. And while they were twisting this matter every way in hot discussion, Coventry quaked, for he feared his little gunscrews would be discovered. But no, they were not in the room.
It was a great mystery; but Raby said they ought to have searched the man's body as well as his pockets.
He locked the cord up, however, and remarked it was a new one, and had probably been bought in Hillsborough. He would try and learn where.
At breakfast-time a bullet was found in the door. Coventry apologized.