Chapter 16

“Pardon me sir, but I am out of my duty to speak to you at all on this subject,” he bowed, “however, I know you are old, and I feel I can trust you. Not your word, sir, that is all right, but your discretion!”

I said. "continued!"

started immediately:

"I have looked into this case, sir, till my mind begins to stagger; but I can find no ordinary solution to it, at the time of each attempt no one seems to have entered the house; and certainly no one has got outside, what is your inference?" "

He said, with a sigh of relief,

"Someone or something is already in the house," I answered, smiling in spite of myself.

"That's exactly what I think," said he, with an obvious sigh of relief. "Okay! Who could that person be?"

I answered. "Someone, or something, was what you said,"

"Let's make it a person, Mr. Ross! That cat though it may scratch or bite him never drags the old man out of bed, or tries to get the bangle out with the key on his arm, t