er
pedestal got away. He did not wait as Travis did till the first
excitement had abated and the way was, in a manner, cleared for an escape
into the court. For X, as we will call him, was certainly among those I
saw lined up before me at the moment I bade them one and all to return
and stand until released, in the exact spot occupied by them when the
first alarm rang out. After the surprise Travis gave us we had the
building searched from roof to cellar. Not another soul was found in it
whose name was not registered on the chart. As I have already said, the
guilty one had managed to escape immediately upon the flight of the
arrow, though how, even then, he could have got below in the time he did
is a mystery which trips me up every time I think of it. But letting that
go for the present, he did get there and get there unnoticed. How? Now,
there are three ways of escape from behind either of those pedestals. The
way Travis took, that is, toward the front, and round through the suite
of rooms headed by the one marked H, to the rear staircase; the more
direct one of an immediate exit from the gallery through Sections VI and
VII to this same staircase; and (the only one worth considering) a
straight plunge for the door behind the tapestry and so down by the
winding staircase beyond, into the Curator's office. The unknown never
went Travis' way, and he couldn't have gone the other without running
into the arms of Correy; so he must have made use of the hidden door. So
convinced was I of this, after last night's discovery eliminated Travis
as a suspect, that I made it my first duty this morning to examine this
door and the mysterious little passageway back of it. When first notified
of this door, we had been assured that it had not been opened in years,
that the only key remaining to it was the one the Curator showed us
hanging from the ring he drew from his own pocket; and acting upon these
statements, which I would not allow myself to doubt for a moment, we
decided to open the door in our own way, which we immediately did. The
result was the instant discovery that some one had passed through this
door and down these stairs very much later than years ago. We could see,
without taking a step beyond the doorway, traces of a well-shod foot in
the dust lying thickly on every tread. These traces were so many and so
confused that I left them for Stevens' experienced eye and deft
manipulation to separate and make plain to us. He is