"Sound echoes," Dr. Stone chuckled. Automobile tires ground the gravel of
the driveway.
"It's Mr. Kent," said the boy.
Harley Kent hurried up to them. "Is this village supposed to have a
police force?" he demanded. "Had to wait half an hour for Captain Tucker
to stroll back from breakfast. There could be a dozen murders
committed----" He broke off. "Just a moment, Doctor, and I'll be with
you. It occurs to me I may have left that lighter in another suit----"
"The maid hung one out to dry," Dr. Stone said.
"Why, yes." Harley Kent stopped short. "That's it," he added, and was
gone. Presently he was back. "Not there. I suppose it will turn up some
place. Well, come in; come in. The police should be here before long."
They mounted to the porch and Lady, after the manner of her breed when
trained to work with the blind, stopped with her head directly under the
knob of the strange door.
"A remarkable animal," Harley Kent said in admiration. "Well, here's
where the job was done, Doctor."
Joe was conscious of strange tremors. Lady, alert, cocked her head and
sniffed the air with an inquiring nose. The doctor, halting in the arched
doorway leading from the hall, seemed to lose himself in thought.
"There's a door to the left of this room, Kent?"
"Yes; it leads into the dining room."
"And windows in the wall facing this way. They're open now."
Harley Kent gave a startled grunt. "Doctor, if I didn't know you were
blind----"
"Air currents," Dr. Stone said laconically. "I feel them on my face. You
feel them, too, but they go unnoticed. You rely on your eyes. The wall
safe, then, should be in the solid wall on the right. Correct, Kent?"
"I don't understand it," Harley Kent said, still startled.
The doctor asked an abrupt question. "How high is that safe from the
floor?"
"Six feet, eight inches."
"To work the combination without straining a short man would have to
stand upon a chair."
"Exactly, Doctor. None of the chairs was disturbed; none of the cushions
trampled. I checked that with the maid."