“That is what I am telling you.�
“All right. Go ahead.�
“Chief, before I went to the station house last night, or very early this morning, I had been here in this room. I knew then what you would find when you arrived here with your men.�
“Then why in blazes didn’t you tell me?�
“Because I thought it best to go about the matter in the manner I have done it; and results have demonstrated that I was correct about that.�
“Well, how did you get here, that’s what I want to know?�
“As you know, I was out here on other business last night. It was about two o’clock, or shortly after that, when I passed this way. It was soon after the snow had fallen, but just then no snow was falling at all.�
“Well, well, well?�
“As I was passing the gate I saw tracks in the snow; the tracks of a man and a woman, entering the place, and the tracks of the same man, made in leaving it. At that time the lock on the gate was securely fastened.�
“Fastened? Do you mean that?�