“And yet there is not the slightest evidence that these doors have been forced,” said the doctor, who had been examining the safe. “This is a most mysterious occurrence.”
“How could the robbers have opened it?” demanded Jack.
“How did they get in, anyhow?” Tom wanted to know. The boy had been looking about the room. “This window is closed and locked with a snap-lock on the inside. Uncle must have felt chilly and closed it, or was it shut when you left, Jack?”
“It was shut,” said Jack positively. “I recollect that, because I asked dad if he didn’t want it closed, and he asked me to shut it.”
“There’s soft mould in the flower bed outside,” struck in Ned. “If any one had come in that way they must have left their footprints on the dirt.”
“That is so,” agreed the doctor. “Let us look at the ground outside the window.”
But an examination of the flower bed only deepened the mystery. It was a bed about five feet wide, and there was no possibility of any one’s having stepped across it without leaving the imprint of his feet. It had rained two days before, too, so that the ground was moist and would have readily retained any impression.
Yet there was not the slightest trace of a footprint to be seen. The little group exchanged puzzled glances.
“Perhaps somebody got in by the front door,” suggested Jack, but on inquiry it was learned that Jupe had been busy polishing floors in the front part of the house most of the day, and nobody could have got past without being seen. The only other entrance to the house was by the kitchen, and the cook was certain that nobody had come in through her domain.