"Doped," said Compton. "You know Bill Purvis? Good man, but never any too smart. Always keeps his lunch basket and bottle of cold tea on a beam under the shed back of the post-office. Everybody in town knew ’twas there and that Bill took a snack about ’leven o’clock, or a little later. "They drugged his tea last night, and he woke up under the shed just before four o’clock this morning. He see the bank window open and the bars bent up and he ran to Arad’s house. Arad telephoned a message to the telegraph operator at the station, who put it through for this bank examiner, before he even tucked his shirt in, so they say." "Yep," ejaculated the suspicious Mr. Crouch. "Looks mighty like Arad knowed the bank had been robbed, spang off!" "He could easy guess it," said Compton, with a dry chuckle, "considering the look of that back window." "I see," said Tobias. "Nobody ever could accuse Arad Thompson of being slow." "Oh, he’s smart enough," sneered Ezra. "That’s what we all air worried about." The lightkeeper asked the storekeeper: "Mr. Compton, haven’t they found any of them there clues ye read about? Burglars always leave clues, don’t they?" "There’s the open window and the sawed bars," returned Compton. "Huh!" sneered the sparrowlike Ezra, "they couldn’t very well take ’em away with them, could they?" Tobias gave him no further heed. He was "studying." "Mr. Compton," he said again, "I’ve noticed them winder bars. They are master thick." "You are right, Tobias." "Nobody could saw through one of them—not with a meat saw—in a short time. And I have read that them sort of saws is made out o’ watch springs. Mighty flimsy they must be. ’Twouldn’t be like cutting cheese with a dull knife." "I believe you, Tobias." "If Bill Purvis," went on the lightkeeper reflectively, "went for his lunch about ’leven, then them burglars couldn’t have been sawin’ on the bars much before midnight. Humph! Let’s go ’round there and take a squint." Tobias and the storekeeper, with Ezra Crouch tagging them, entered the lane between the bank building, which was built of cement blocks, and the post-office, which was a frame structure. The window in question overlooked a stableyard at the back. "I give it as my opinion," said the lightkeeper, "that them burglars couldn’t have worked here till after Bill was dead to the world in that shed yonder. Else he’d have seen ’em." "You’re right, Tobias." "And look at them bars," continued the lightkeeper. "Ha’f as thick as my wrist. How’d you like to stand here—on a flimsy box, ’tis likely—and saw away at them two bars? For how long? I cal’late ’twas something of a job. ’Twould take more’n _one_ hour—nor yet _two_!" "Uh-huh!" agreed the storekeeper. "And then they crawled in and worked on the door of the vault, and got it open. Well, well! That must have taken some time, too. And they got clean away with the money before four o’clock?" "They worked quick," said Compton.