“There is your clue,” said Penny.
She indicated two freshly made gashes on the window ledge. Separated by possibly a foot of space, they clearly had been made by a hook or sharp instrument which had dug deeply into the wood.
CHAPTER
7
MARK OF THE IRON HOOK
“What do you think of it?” Penny asked as the officer studied the marks in silence.
“I’d say they were made by something which hooked over the ledge,” the policeman replied. “Possibly a ladder with curving irons.”
Jerry gazed down over the window ledge into the dark alley.
“No ordinary ladder could reach this high,” he commented. “Raising an extension would be quite a problem, too.”
The Kohl maid timidly approached the window, gazing at the two deep gashes with interest. Asked by the policeman if she ever had noticed them before, she shook her head.
“Oh, no, sir. They must have been made tonight. I know they weren’t there this afternoon when I dusted the window sills.”
“Incredible as it seems, the thief came through this window,” decided the policeman. “How he did it is for the detectives at Central Station to figure out.”