“No, everything is locked off.”
“Do you think the rear staircase goes all the way down?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea.”
“You are in the house. Have you any suggestions as to the best method of getting into the house? Is Reed on guard all night?”
“I think he is.”
“It may interest you to know,” he said finally, “that I sent a reliable man to break in there last night quietly, and that he—couldn’t do it. He got a leg through a cellar window, and came near not getting it out again. Reed was just inside in the dark.” He laughed a little, but I guessed that the thing galled him.
“I do not believe that he would have found anything if he had succeeded in getting in. There has been no crime, Mr. Patton, I am sure of that. But there is a menace of some sort in the house.”
“Then why does Mrs. Reed stay and keep the children if there is danger?”
“I believe she is afraid to leave him. There are times when I think that he is desperate.”
“Does he ever leave the house?”