CHAPTER IX
Mr. Johnson returned to find a motor car standing outside his door and Major Holmes with a subordinate in colloquy with Morton. He led them himself to the library, showed them the door with its picked lock, the empty coffer and the window on the ground floor through which the marauder had made an easy entrance. The Chief Constable was perplexed.
“You are only a sub-tenant here, I understand, Mr. Johnson?” he asked.
“Only a sub-tenant,” the latter acknowledged.
“And you yourself have never been in this room? I gather that it was locked up by Miss Endacott’s instructions.”
“Quite so.”
“Then you really don’t know what has been taken?”
“The contents of the coffer evidently,” Mr. Johnson replied. “It was always understood that it contained Chinese manuscripts which Mr. Endacott brought home with him from abroad.”
There was a moment’s silence. Then Major Holmes continued.
“I have told Inspector Cloutson here,” he said, “of your visit to me.”