We had gone to our rooms upstairs while the men were hunting through the tunnel to the well. They found nothing; everything was as we had left it after our adventures there.
It seemed to us that, all things considered, the work on the panel must have been done by someone within the household, or, at least, that some of its members must have been involved in the matter.
"It may have been accomplished at night, however, and by an outsider," said Oakes. "The servants' quarters are separate from the house. Anyone might easily have entered the cellar by the tunnel route. Still, there may have been collusion also."
"It seems a nonsensical idea to leave the dèbris in the cellar," I said.
"No, I think not," was the answer. "The care-takers are afraid even to enter that place. The miscreant knew that detection would be probable at the hands of strangers only."
That evening Elliott and Martin left for New York. They were to bring the negro boy, Joe, to Mona. Late at night, before we retired, Oakes asked us to go with him into the parlor.
"What for?" said I.
"To forge another link in the chain—the strongest yet," he said.
"What?"