Both were bound
hand and foot, and the head of each was enveloped in a green-baize bag;
and when the bags were taken off, each was found to be lightly but
effectively gagged.
"Each told the same story. The caretaker, fancying he heard a noise,
armed himself with a truncheon, and came downstairs to the first-floor,
where he found the door of one of the rooms open, and a light burning
inside. He stepped on tiptoe to the open door, and was peering in, when
he was seized from behind, half suffocated by a pad held over his mouth,
pinioned, gagged, and blindfolded with the bag.
"His assailant--whom he never saw--was amazingly strong and skilful, and
handled him with perfect ease, although he--the caretaker--is a powerful
man, and a good boxer and wrestler. The same thing happened to the wife,
who had come down to look for her husband. She walked into the same
trap, and was gagged, pinioned, and blindfolded without ever having soon
the robber. So the only description that we have of this villain is that
furnished by the constable."
"And the caretaker had no chance of using his truncheon?" said
Thorndyke.
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