"But where was the watchman?" Tobias asked.
"Doped," said Compton. "You know Bill Purvis? Good man, but never any too smart. Always keeps his lunch basket and bottle of cold tea on a beam under the shed back of the post-office. Everybody in town knew 'twas there and that Bill took a snack about 'leven o'clock, or a little later.
"They drugged his tea last night, and he woke up under the shed just before four o'clock this morning. He see the bank window open and the bars bent up and he ran to Arad's house. Arad telephoned a message to the telegraph operator at the station, who put it through for this bank examiner, before he even tucked his shirt in, so they say."
"Yep," ejaculated the suspicious Mr. Crouch. "Looks mighty like Arad knowed the bank had been robbed, spang off!"
"He could easy guess it," said Compton, with a dry chuckle, "considering the look of that back window."
"I see," said Tobias. "Nobody ever could accuse Arad Thompson of being slow."
"Oh, he's smart enough," sneered Ezra. "That's what we all air worried about."
The lightkeeper asked the storekeeper:
"Mr. Compton, haven't they found any of them there clues ye read about? Burglars always leave clues, don't they?"
"There's the open window and the sawed bars," returned Compton.