“That’s all for the present, sergeant,” he said. “Go inside and get warm—you and the men. If there’s been any telephone message, come out and tell us.”
The men needed no second invitation to hurry to the fire, and they followed the sergeant rapidly around the corner of the house toward the veranda, leaving Verbeck and Riley and Muggs alone beneath the window.
“Well?” Riley said.
“Follow it!” Verbeck commanded. “It must end somewhere. And we don’t need the squad with us when we find the end.”
“That’s the way I looked at it. Great Scott, what a chase! Through the snow and through the sewer——”
“No message!” the sergeant shouted from the veranda.
Muggs raised the window. They crept over the sill into the dusty room. Again Riley’s torch flashed, and they saw the wire running up the side of the window to the ceiling and through it.
“To the floor above!” Verbeck said.
They ran to the stairs and went up. As they passed the door of the living room, they saw the policemen standing before the big fireplace, extending their numb hands to the blaze.
They had no difficulty locating the wire on the second floor. It came from below, and ran up the side of a window. It followed the border of the wall paper, and once more it penetrated a ceiling.