“It was? How?” cried Ned and Harry.
“It couldn’t be!” insisted Chief Drayton. “Chuckin’ it down the chimbley wouldn’t do it.”
“Not exactly chucking it,” said Bob, still quietly. “But the chimney was used. I’ll show you how it was done. Mr. Beegle, do you mind going in your strong room, and lying on the floor just in the position you were in when you recovered consciousness after you were robbed?”
“Sure I’ll do that,” agreed Hiram.
The others watched him take his place. Then they went outside on Bob’s request and watched him solve the key trick. The lad climbed up in the tree that grew beside the log cabin, and in a minute he was on the roof, beside the chimney.
“I’m dropping down the flue a piece of fish line with a piece of lead on the end to carry it,” he said, suiting the action to the word. “Now go inside again.”
They entered the room, where Hiram was lying on the floor, waiting for what was to happen next. Dangling in the fireplace was the weighted string.
The fish line extended up the chimney flue, coming out at the top, where Bob fastened it temporarily.
The young detective then removed the lead weight and pulled the slack of the cord across the floor, until the end was close to the hand of Mr. Beegle as the sailor lay on the floor. With a small nail, passed through a knot he tied in the end of the cord, Bob fastened the line lightly to the floor.
“We now have,” he said, “a cord extending from this point up through the flue and out of the chimney at the top. Now if you will all remain here you’ll see the conclusion of the experiment.”