"Sooner than I expected," Major Freeman observed as they hurried towards
the nearest point to the boat.
The rope when landed proved to be of considerable length, sufficient when
doubled, they calculated, to reach from the topmost window to within five
or six feet of the ground.
"The escaping person," Henshaw said, "must have slid down the doubled
rope which had been passed through the staple of the window, and then
when the ground was reached have pulled it away, coiled it up, carried it
to the lake, and thrown it in. Obviously that was the procedure and it
accounts completely for the locked door."
The chief constable and the detective agreed.
"A man would want some nerve to come down from that height," the
latter remarked.
"Any man, or woman either for that matter," Henshaw returned
dogmatically, "would not hesitate to take the risk as an alternative to
being trapped up there with his victim."
"You are not suggesting it might have been a woman who was seen sliding
down the rope?" Gifford asked pointedly.
Henshaw shrugged. "I suggest nothing as to the person's identity," he
replied in a sharply guarded tone.
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