“I do; and we will make prisoners of every one in the building. Then we will set the dog to work and with his aid we will find that secret prison, or to-morrow it will be a grave.”
“At what hour shall we start in?”
“We will go down there at nine o’clock. We will go as tramps. We will ask shelter. We will be refused, then we can provoke him into a row, and quicker than lightning close in on every member of the family.”
Murray meditated for a long time and then said:
“I reckon your scheme is a good one.”
We will here explain that Murray had disclosed to Atwood the mystery of the strange noises. The effect upon the man had been so marked the officer thought it best to relieve his mind, and after dinner our hero amused the two or three men present from the city by giving them some very remarkable exhibitions of his skill as a magician and a ventriloquist, and all hands pronounced him the wonder of the age.
At a little after eight o’clock Murray and our hero started for the farmhouse and in due time arrived there. The man Herman was sitting on the piazza. He was a powerful fellow—a great ignorant lout, but undoubtedly, as the detective concluded, physically as strong as a horse, and a man just ignorant enough in a violent passion to kill a man. If there was a born murderer in appearance the fellow Herman was the man.
Murray and Ike approached the house. The hound had been left under a hedge and as the two apparent tramps drew near Herman warned them off; but the pretended “cheese eaters” would not obey, but walked straight up to the porch.
“What do you rascals want?” demanded Herman.
“We are tired and hungry; we want food and lodging.”