Besides, in our case, we were
obliged to proceed without noise."
"But you could not have removed --you could not have taken to
pieces all articles of furniture in which it would have been
possible to make a deposit in the manner you mention. A letter may
be compressed into a thin spiral roll, not differing much in shape
or bulk from a large knitting-needle, and in this form it might be
inserted into the rung of a chair, for example. You did not take to
pieces all the chairs?"
"Certainly not; but we did better --we examined the rungs of every
chair in the hotel, and, indeed, the jointings of every description of
furniture, by the aid of a most powerful microscope. Had there been
any traces of recent disturbance we should not have failed to detect
it instantly. A single grain of gimlet-dust, for example, would have
been as obvious as an apple. Any disorder in the glueing --any unusual
gaping in the joints --would have sufficed to insure detection."
"I presume you looked to the mirrors, between the boards and the
plates, and you probed the beds and the bed-clothes, as well as the
curtains and carpets."
"That of course; and when we had absolutely completed every
particle of the furniture in this way, then we examined the house
itself.
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