“I don’t know,” returned the girl. “She sent me out with Tommy after dinner, and when I tried to get in after a while the door was locked and she was gone.”
“And you have been sitting here ever since?”
“Yes.”
“Come up. I’ll open the door.”
Jerry led the way, and with a night key opened the door to the kitchen.
A cry of surprise burst from his lips. Everywhere were the signs of a desperate struggle. Two of the chairs were overturned, the table-cloth hung half off the table, and Nellie Ardell’s sewing was strewn in all directions.
“This is Slocum’s work!”
Those were the words which arose to the youth’s lips as he surveyed the situation in the kitchen.
Alexander Slocum had tried to get him out of the way, and now he had tried the same plan upon Nellie Ardell.
There had been a fierce struggle, of that there was not the slightest doubt.