"My health is somewhat
fragile," he remarked, as he led the way down the passage. "I am
compelled to be a valetudinarian."
Our cab was awaiting us outside, and our programme was evidently
prearranged, for the driver started off at once at a rapid pace.
Thaddeus Sholto talked incessantly, in a voice which rose high
above the rattle of the wheels.
"Bartholomew is a clever fellow," said he. "How do you think he
found out where the treasure was? He had come to the conclusion
that it was somewhere indoors: so he worked out all the cubic
space of the house, and made measurements everywhere, so that not
one inch should be unaccounted for. Among other things, he found
that the height of the building was seventy-four feet, but on
adding together the heights of all the separate rooms, and making
every allowance for the space between, which he ascertained by
borings, he could not bring the total to more than seventy feet.
There were four feet unaccounted for. These could only be at the
top of the building. He knocked a hole, therefore, in the lath-
and-plaster ceiling of the highest room, and there, sure enough,
he came upon another little garret above it, which had been
sealed up and was known to no one.
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