“How about back doors?” asked Larry.
“I’ve got a man with me. He’s guarding the back. He hasn’t seen any one, either.”
“You don’t mean to tell me that no one has gone in or out of that boarding-house since before breakfast this morning?” asked Larry, in surprise.
“Of course not,” replied the detective. “A lot of people came out, and some went in. I’ve got descriptions of all of ’em, but none fit. Here, I’ll read ’em to you,” and he proceeded to do so. There were women and men who had gone in, or come out, but no one tallied with the description of Witherby. The only person to enter the back door was a milkman, and Larry at once dismissed him from consideration.
“Well, I guess he didn’t come back here then,” the young reporter remarked, referring to Witherby. “He must have gotten suspicious and left. I think I’ll try and get up to his room again.”
“Think there may be more clews there?” asked the representative of the law.
“There might be. Let’s see, you’ve got a note here of a man with a long, white beard entering the boarding-house.”
“Yes, he went in early this morning, soon after I got here. It was shortly after breakfast, and the woman here was quite surprised to get one as a boarder so early. I told her I wanted to get some photographs of the sunrise, and she thought that was all right. The white-bearded man entered, and he hasn’t come out yet, so he must be there.”
“And no one has come out who looks like Witherby?”
“Not a soul. I’ve been right on the job.”