He examined the last-made record for the fault that made the odd jarring of its recording. No flaw showed, even under magnification.
“It’s actually part of the record,” he got Grover to add to his list of notes; and then he said to his cousin, “it may mean that the locks went off, somehow, just there.”
“But it doesn’t record the re-locking, so that doesn’t fit.”
“If only we could see any cause for that thumping sound,” Roger reflected out loud. “We might have one more real clue.”
If only he had been able to decode the key hidden there!
Chapter 12
DETECTIVE ROGER
After further consideration of the sound clues, and discussion of the uncanny appearance of animals on a film, and other points, and without seeing any light, Grover rose.
“The staff will be arriving any time, now,” said he. “Let’s look up that fellow, Joseph Z. Clark, because I want you to do a little Sherlock-Hawkshaw work if we locate his address.”
They took first the telephone book. He was listed, and his address was in a section of the suburbs given over to large private estates. His business also was listed. He was a jeweler, and the reason he could own an estate was shown by his business address in fashionable Fifth Avenue.
“A man would seem to be a suspicious character loitering around a private estate,” Grover looked up, “but a boy——”