I should like when I go down to ask the gardener where he left the ladder yesterday.

Have you examined the ground for footmarks ?" "Yes, Sir Charles, but you see it was a pretty hard frost last night, and I cannot find any marks at all.

The ground must have been like iron about the time when the ladder was placed there." The gardener, on being called in, said that the ladder was always hung up outside the shed at the back of the house; there was a chain round it, and he had found that morning that one of the links had been filed through.
"The Squire was most particular about its being locked, as Mr.Mark knows, so that it could not be used by any ill disposed chaps who might come along at night.

The key of the padlock was always hung on a nail round the other side of the shed.

The Squire knew of it, and so did Mr.
Mark and me; so that while it was out of the way of the eyes of a thief, any of us could run and get it and undo the padlock in a minute in case of fire or anything of that sort.