"Shaty vork? Vell, you bed you! Vere iss Matt? Dot's vat I vand to know vorse as anyt'ing else. I ditn't vant him to go in dere, anyvay, aber ven he makes oop his mindt to do somet'ing, den it vas as goot as done und vat I say don'd cut some ice."
"If he's in there we'll get him," said the officer, decidedly.
As a preliminary to more drastic operations, he went up to the door and pounded on it with his night-stick. The summons, although several times repeated, was not answered. Thereupon the policeman and Carl, throwing their united weight upon the door, burst the bolt from its fastenings and tumbled into the hall.
The darkness of the interior was relieved only by the glare of the furnaces coming in at the transom. Silence reigned everywhere.
"I don'd like der looks oof t'ings," muttered Carl, forebodingly. "Dere don'd vas anypody ad home now, aber ven Matt come in dere vas plendy oof people here. Vat toes it mean, officer?"
"We'll try and find out what it means."
There was an electric dark lantern at the policeman's belt. Taking the lantern in his hand he switched on the light and sent a bright gleam into every nook and corner of the hall.
No sign of Matt, nor of any of the occupants of the house, was revealed. There were only two or three rooms furnished on the lower floor, and none at all on the floor above. Every part of the house was searched, and the last place of all to pass under the policeman's and Carl's scrutiny was the shallow basement.
It was evident to both searchers that people had been in the house up to a very recent moment, for in one of the first-floor rooms there remained an odor of tobacco smoke, but there was no living person anywhere in evidence.
"Don'd dot peat ter tickens?" murmured Carl. "Matt come in der front door, und he ditn't come oudt oof it. Oof he vas daken away it must haf peen py der pack oof der house. Meppy ve pedder haf a look ad der pack yardt?"