But when, with their recent fixture, you couple the facts that they have been removed, that very careful measures have been taken to obliterate the traces of their presence, and that they would have been indispensable for the commission of the crime that we are almost certain was being committed here, it looks like an excess of caution to seek other explanations." "But," I objected, "if the man, Graves, was really imprisoned, could not he have smashed the window and called for help ?" "The window looks out on the yard, as you see; but I expect it was secured too." He drew the massive, old-fashioned shutters out of their recess and closed them.
"Yes, here we are." He pointed to four groups of screw-holes at the corners of the shutters, and, once more producing his lamp, narrowly examined the insides of the recesses into which the shutters folded.
"The nature of the fastening is quite evident," said he.

"An iron bar passed right across at the top and bottom and was secured by a staple and padlock.

You can see the mark the bar made in the recess when the shutters were folded.

When these bars were fixed and padlocked and the bolts were shot, this room was as secure, for a prisoner unprovided with tools, as a cell in Newgate." We looked at one another for awhile without speaking; and I fancy that if Mr.H.Weiss could have seen our faces he might have thought it desirable to seek some retreat even more remote than Hamburg.
"It was a diabolical affair, Jervis," Thorndyke said at length, in an ominously quiet and even gentle tone.

"A sordid, callous, cold-blooded crime of a type that is to me utterly unforgivable and incapable of extenuation.