other door. At top and bottom, similar
groups of screw-holes showed that this also had been made secure, and
that these bolts had been of the same very substantial character as the
others.

Thorndyke turned away from the door with a slight frown.

"If we had any doubts," said he, "as to what has been going on in this
house, these traces of massive fastenings would be almost enough to
settle them."

"They might have been there before Weiss came," I suggested. "He only
came about seven months ago and there is no date on the screw-holes."

"That is quite true. But when, with their recent fixture, you couple the
facts that they have been removed, that very careful measures have been
taken to obliterate the traces of their presence, and that they would
have been indispensable for the commission of the crime that we are
almost certain was being committed here, it looks like an excess of
caution to seek other explanations."

"But," I objected, "if the man, Graves, was really imprisoned, could not
he have smashed the window and called for help?"

"The window looks out on the yard, as you see; but I expect it was
secured too."

He drew the massive, old-fashioned shutters out of their recess and
closed them.

"Yes, here we are." He pointed to four groups of screw-holes at the
corners of the shutters, and, once more producing his lamp, narrowly
examined the insides of the recesses into which the shutters folded.

"The nature of the fastening is quite evident," said he. "An iron bar
passed right across at the top and bottom and was secured by a staple
and padlock. You can see the mark the bar made in the recess when the
shutters were folded. When these bars were fixed and padlocked and the
bolts were shot, this room was as secure, for a prisoner unprovided with
tools, as a cell in Newgate."

We looked at one another for awhile without speaking; and I fancy that
if Mr. H. Weiss could have seen our faces he might have thought it
desirable to seek some retreat even more remote than Hamburg.

"It was a diabolical affair, Jervis," Thorndyke said at length, in an
ominously quiet and even gentle tone. "A sordid, callous, cold-blooded
crime of a type that is to me utterly unforgivable and incapable of
extenuation. Of course, it may have failed. Mr. Graves may even now be
alive. I shall make it my very especial business to ascertain whether he
is or not. And if he is not, I shall take it to myself as a sacred duty
to lay my h