"Don't you think we ought to open that chest, sir?" asked Whistler of the warrant officer who had immediate charge of the work.
"It doesn't seem to come from that box," objected the man.
"It doesn't seem to come from anywhere exactly," Whistler said. "It is sort of ventriloquial. One time it seems to be from one direction, then from another. But that chest hasn't been open——"
"Whose is it?"
"I don't know, sir."
"Who does know?" the warrant officer asked.
But nobody seemed able to answer that query. The searchers gathered about the chest that had been pulled out of the heap of rubbish. It was ironbound and made of heavy planking.
"It gets me!" murmured the officer.
Just then the sound started again: "Tick-tock! Tick-tock! Tick-tock!"
"It don't come from that box!" declared one man.