“But you got off easily enough, didn’t you? Of course the man who thought he saw you was mistaken.” Marchmont’s tones were smooth and persuasive.
Salter rallied his courage and went blindly forward. “It doesn’t make any difference how I got off. The thing must end or I’ll not be responsible for the consequences.”
Marchmont laughed. “There won’t be any consequences. You aren’t mean enough to squeal.”
“I’ve advised him to give you warning, and when you go through again, lock you out,” said Wolcott, coming to the rescue. “He’s put up with it long enough.”
Marchmont turned coldly: “So you’re butting in again, are you? I don’t see that this concerns you in the slightest.”
“As Salter’s backer in case he needs my help it may concern me a good deal,” retorted Wolcott. “Shall we go now?”
Salter eagerly assented, and the pair retired with the honors of battle.
The next day Salter again appeared to consult his adviser.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about that hole. It ought to be closed up. He may keep out for a time, but I never shall feel safe as long as it’s there.”
“Get a carpenter to close it up,” Wolcott answered promptly.
“It would be all over town in a day. I’d like to do it on the quiet.”
“Can’t you do it yourself?” asked Wolcott.
“I don’t know a thing about tools,” lamented Salter.
“Neither do I,” confessed Lindsay in turn. “I’ll tell you who can help us,” he added after a pause, as the incident of the trip to Eastham suddenly occurred to him. “Laughlin! He’s a corker with tools—almost as good as a carpenter.”
“Will you ask him?” suggested Salter, dubiously.
Laughlin presented himself that very afternoon at Salter’s room, and made his examination.
“It’ll be dead easy,” he said in a reassuring tone.
“Must you go into Marchmont’s room in order to fix it?” Salter asked uneasily.
“No, I can do everything from here. All you have to do is to put two long strips across the opening underneath the trap-door and screw them tight to the door. That’ll prevent his lifting it up. Then we’ll nail some cleats on the sides of the joists and tack boards to the cleats so as to fill up the hole in the ceiling of the closet.”
Salter pretended to understand. “Can you come Thursday afternoon? Mrs. Winter and her niece who helps with the housework are going to a church club meeting at three o’clock, and the house will be clear.”