Nick did not wait to make reply. He rushed the thicket whence the shots had come, but arrived too late to find the would-be murderer there. When Chick reached the spot, he found his chief down on his knees examining the earth, lantern in hand.
As the assistant came up, Nick shut off the flash, and moved away from the spot.
“Now,” said Chick, “that shows that there are people about here who are implicated in the happenings of last night. They evidently think we are getting too inquisitive.”
Nick walked on toward the house without making reply. He was thinking fast. Once more his clues were pointing in a contrary direction.
“Those shots were intended to defend the murderer and not the diamond thief,” he mused. “Now, I wonder if the people up here have fallen into my trap?”
Arrived at the house, Nick and Chick, after a moment’s conversation with Mrs. Maynard and Charley, proceeded to the second floor of the mansion. Nick stopped at the head of the stairs with a smile on his face. The stairs and the halls had been swept and washed during the day, thus removing every trace of the record left by naked feet the night before.
Nick hastened to the closet in Anton’s room. When he came out again, the smile on his face had broadened. His next move was to visit the hallway used by the servants in reaching the rooms over the main part of the house. This, too, had been cleaned, and tiny marks which Nick had observed on the door in the morning had been obliterated. In one place the paint had been partially rubbed from the door casing in scrubbing off a stain. The detective turned toward the lower part of the house.
“The case up here is closed,” he said.
Chick opened his eyes, but said nothing.