Brooks and his wife, whose room was on the same floor, ran into the old man's room.

The place was dark, but a bright light burned in the vault-room.

Into this room they ran, and there, lying on the floor, with money scattered about him, was the old man, bloody and dead, with a bullet-hole in his breast.

But where was Mrs.Colton?
They hastened back to her room and struck a light.

The old woman lay across the bed, unable to move--paralyzed.
The first discovery made by the police was that the iron bars at the window, four in number, had been sawed in two; and then followed another discovery of a more singular nature.