“In a way,” replied the young man Temple. “I am very intimate here, but I am here now only because the family are away. Uncle Jacob asked me to sleep here and guard their house in his absence.”
“Well,” replied Nick, “it doesn’t seem as if you guarded it much.”
“No,” laughed the young man, “I never heard anything until I heard the sound of the officer’s club on the door.”
“Take us into that rear room.”
Temple led the way across the hall to this room, which occupied the whole width of the house, lighting a jet of the chandelier.
If there had been no indications of a robbery elsewhere, there were plenty to be seen in this room.
Two handsome desks had been forcibly opened and rifled, the contents being scattered on the floor; that is to say, such as had not been carried away.
The drawers of the bookcases had been pulled out, their contents hastily pulled over, much having been thrown on the floor.
In a hasty glance about the room it did appear as if every object in it had passed under the hands of the thieves.
There was not a picture hanging straight on the walls, and there were many in the room.