“You—knew—” he murmured.
VI.
Chain of Circumstance.
“BUT there is one thing you can tell me,” Quarrier was saying. “You had the combination of the safe, of course; we’ll say nothing more about that—but—how did you get in?”
Harrison bent his head.
“Well, sir,” he explained, after a moment, “it was simple, but I’d never have thought of it but for—him.” He pointed to the silent figure on the floor.
“Well—there are just three doors, sir, as you know,” he resumed. “The entrance door of your office, with the combination lock; the entrance door of the lumber-room here, both giving on the corridor; and the inside door between the lumber-room and your office. We couldn’t get into the office by the entrance door from the hall on account of the combination lock, but we could and did get into the lumber-room easily enough from the corridor—the door’s not even locked, as you know, sir. And that’s how we got into the private office—from the lumber-room, here, through the door between.”
“But how—?” began Quarrier. “That door is a steel one; it was locked—I’ll swear to that. You didn’t jimmy it; you didn’t have a Fourth Dimension handy, did you, Harrison? But—go on; it’s beyond me, I’ll confess.”
Harrison permitted himself the ghost of a grin.
“Why—just a newspaper, and a bit of wire, sir—that was how it was done. I didn’t dare unlock the connecting door—beforehand, sir—from the office side; I never had the chance. I was never alone in the office, sir, even for a second, as you know; but there’s a clearance of nearly half an inch, sir, beneath that connecting door—just enough for the newspaper. From the lumber-room here I pushed the paper under the door, into the office, and then, with the wire, it wasn’t so difficult to push the key out of the lock; the door was locked from the office side, of course.
“The key fell on the paper; we pulled the paper with the key on it back under the door, sir, into the lumber-room here, and—we just unlocked the connecting door there, and walked into the office. Afterwards I locked the door again, from the office side, and I just did make it out the front door of the office, when I heard your step on the stair. He was waiting for me in the lumber-room; he said it was safer. Anyway, I just did make it along the hall and into the lumber-room by the hall entrance before you came.”