The whole room bore the evidence of a thorough ransacking, and the disordered clothing of the nabob proved, too, that the body had been rifled.

The mysterious nocturnal visits returned to Simpson's mind.

"Could it have been some once-wronged woman ?" he mused while waiting for his "military superiors." For the simple old soldier scorned all civilian control.
His keen eye had caught the strange facts of the fastened windows, the disappearance of the two mahogany boxes, and the startling absence of the key of the chamber door.
"Whoever did this job knew what they came for and when to come!" mused Simpson.

He gazed at the window sill.

There was the mark of damp earth still upon it.