“That’s precisely what I mean.”
“Gee whiz! The death of the housekeeper then——”
“There has been no death,” Nick interrupted, all the while at work trying to pry open the skylight. “The whole business is a craftily planned job, from the time Gerald[Pg 19] Vaughn, so called, met Colonel Barker in Berlin, if he really did meet him there, and learned that this house was to be vacant for several months. We’ll soon find out whether I am right and—ah, now it gives. Lend a hand, Chick, and we can raise it.”
Nick had contrived to partly remove the hook that secured the skylight, and it then proved easy to raise the latter.
“Close it after us, Patsy, and return by the way we came,” Nick directed. “Say nothing about what we have found and are doing. Go down to the front door of this house and wait for me to admit you.”
“I’m wise, chief,” said Patsy. “I’ll nail any one who attempts to leave.”
“There is no one in the house,” Nick repeated. “I’m sure of that. Come with me, Chick.”
He turned with the last and dropped down to the upper hall, Chick quickly following him.
“We’ll cover the ground as we go,” he added. “These rooms, Chick, to begin with.”
They found in the first one they entered the evidence confirming Nick’s deductions and suspicions—a piece of joist about ten feet long, a sawhorse fixed on a baseboard, that had been secured to the upper edge of the roof, a coil of rope, a block and tackle, a broad wicker basket nearly three feet long, to each end handle of which was tied a long hemp cord.