“The windows are all dark,” remarked the inspector. “The house seems deserted.”
“Our birds are flown and the nest empty,” said Holmes.
“Why do you say so?”
“A carriage heavily loaded with luggage has passed out during the last hour.”
The inspector laughed. “I saw the wheel-tracks in the light of the gate-lamp, but where does the luggage come in?”
“You may have observed the same wheel-tracks going the other way. But the outward-bound ones were very much deeper—so much so that we can say for a certainty that there was a very considerable weight on the carriage.”
“You get a trifle beyond me there,” said the inspector, shrugging his shoulder. “It will not be an easy door to force, but we will try if we cannot make someone hear us.”
He hammered loudly at the knocker and pulled at the bell,