“Cut foot? Not I,” said Justice.
“Nor I,” said Slim. “Did somebody cut his foot?”
“Look,” said Nyoda, pointing to the marks on the lower steps.
“It must have been your husband, or the Captain,” said Justice. “It wasn’t either of us.”
“It wasn’t either of them,” replied Nyoda. “I asked them. They’re down in the basement fussing with the furnace.”
“It’s the print of a foot with a shoe on,” said Justice, examining the marks.
“Somebody must have gotten into the house last night!” exclaimed Nyoda in a startled tone. “Sherry,” she called, “come up here!”
Sherry came up from the basement on the run, for he recognized something out of the ordinary in his wife’s tone, and the Captain came hard on his heels. The girls came running down from above to see what the commotion was about, and the whole household stood staring at the mysterious footprints in startled bewilderment.
“Burglars!” cried Hinpoha with a little shriek.
“Oh, my silverware!” exclaimed Nyoda in a stricken tone, and raced into the dining room. She pulled open the sideboard drawers with trembling hands, expecting to find them ransacked, but nothing was amiss. Every piece was still in its place. Neither had the sterling silver candlesticks on top of the sideboard been disturbed. A thorough search through the house revealed nothing missing. Various gold bracelets and watches lay in plain sight on dressers, and Hinpoha’s gold mesh bag hung on the back of a chair beside her bed. Sherry reported no money gone.