“No. But this is the first time anything happened to them. And it was all so mixed up, no proper search was made at the moment of the scare. If it had been, something might have been found out.”
“Well, I hope we can find out something,” Arden suggested. “It’s sad to think of a poor man hurt on the first work he gets after months of idleness. And that little family was in a sad state.”
“Yes. We must make sure that Mr. Callahan does something for them—workmen’s compensation relief or something like that.”
Arden nodded. She was very thoughtful, and Sim, noticing that her chum’s thoughts had evidently taken a new turn, asked:
“Have you any other theory as to how this happened to Jim?”
“I was just wondering if anyone could have slipped into that closet, stolen up behind Jim, hit him on the head, and then put his unconscious body down the ash-chute?”
“I don’t see how they could, with another man in the same room.”
“No, I suppose not. Well, it’s baffling, certainly.”
As they made a turn in the road which would put them on the main highway leading back to the Hall and Jockey Hollow, they saw a horseman leading a riderless mount coming out of the woods.
“It’s Dick Howe!” exclaimed Arden.