"Do you suppose there are any relatives besides those we know
of?" I asked Kennedy when Fletcher had left to summon the
servants.

"No," he replied, "I think not. Fletcher and Helen Bond, his
second cousin, to whom he is engaged, are the only two."

Kennedy continued to study the library. He walked in and out of
the doors and examined the windows and viewed the safe from all
angles.

"The old gentleman's bedroom is here," he said, indicating a door.
"Now a good smart noise or perhaps even a light shining through
the transom from the library might arouse him. Suppose he woke up
suddenly and entered by this door. He would see the thief at work
on the safe. Yes, that part of reconstructing the story is
simple. But who was the intruder?"

Just then Fletcher returned with the servants. The questioning
was long and tedious, and developed nothing except that the
butler admitted that he was uncertain whether the windows in the
library were locked. The gardener was very obtuse, but finally
contributed one possibly important fact. He had noted in the
morning that the back gate, leading into a disused road closer to
the bay than the main highway in front of the house, was open. It
was rarely used, and was kept closed only by an ordinary hook.
Whoever had opened it had evidently forgotten to hook it. He had
thought it strange that it was unhooked, and in closing it he had
noticed in the mud of the roadway marks that seemed to indicate
that an automobile had stood there.