"Inside. In his office," snorted Ezra Crouch.
"Smokin' twenty-five cent see-gars an' takin' it easy."
"Looks suspicious," agreed Tobias, his eyes twinkling. "These times it does seem as though a feller must have come by his money dishonest if he smokes quarter cigars. Hullo, Mr. Compton!"
Compton kept one of the general stores. He was a bald-headed, keen-eyed man. His smile was rather grim as he acknowledged the lightkeeper's greeting.
"Good-day, Tobias. What you and Ezra doing? Going to get a rope and pick out a good tree for a necktie party? To hear some of these folks talk you'd think Arad had robbed his own self."
"How was it done?" asked Tobias.
"Plain to be seen. Back window forced from the outside. They must have worked a long time on those window-bars, to saw 'em through. But they opened the safe by learning the combination."
"Get out!"
"Fact. Didn't hurt the lock none. Either they knew the combination 'fore they started in, or they was smart enough to puzzle it out."
"They knowed the combination because they knowed it," snorted Ezra Crouch cryptically.