Meanwhile during Humblethorne’s fruitless investigation of the two studies, Evelyn came down the main stairs to dissolve her uneasiness and drive away the headache which was threatening her by a little fresh air. As she reached the landing and turned down the flight of stairs towards the hall she saw the sheet carefully covering the evidences of the crime, and hesitated. She had not been told the exact position in the hall where the body had been found and had not realized she would have to pass so close to it. She half turned to retreat and go by the back stairs, but the silence encouraged her and curiosity drove her on. Skirting the sheet carefully, she gained the hall. No one was about; she saw the body was not there and, stooping with a sudden impulse, she lifted the sheet and looked down. She noted with repulsion but also with interest, as her gaze grew more intent, the main bloodstains on the marble and edge of carpet and those both on the edge of the bottom stair and on the second and fourth steps. They became photographed in her mind as any unusual sight will impress itself on a vivid brain. She then looked with kindling imagination at the cigarette box and confusion of cigarettes: “if the box was thrown at him—and one could hardly hold it to strike with—it is funny it didn’t drop further away and the cigarettes fly all over the place,” she thought. Forgetting in the interest of the amateur such scientific details as the possibility of finger-marks, she bent down and gingerly lifted the box, taking care not to soil her fingers by touching the bloodstains on it. She noticed the dent on the corner and saw, rather to her surprise, that there was no blood there. As she bent down with a little exclamation of disgust to replace the box in the exact position in which she had found it, she paused suddenly, turned the box carefully over and saw that the bottom had from its edge to its centre an irregular, blot-like stain, corresponding to that on the carpet as now shown by the lifting of the box. The box was heavy, and the impression of its shape was clearly visible on the soft carpet. “I don’t quite understand this,” she said to herself, putting the box back with great care. “If the box was there when the blood trickled down to it, I should have thought it would have more or less dammed the trickle. It must have been moved, I suppose; I wonder why.” She replaced the sheet and stood there, puzzling over the little problem she believed she had discovered. “Now that box belongs on this table,” she said, going slowly to the small table which stood against the wall close to the drawing-room door, “and it was there last night after dinner, because I saw it. I shall begin my investigations in the drawing-room.” With a sense of slight amusement at the way she was following out a momentary impulse she opened the door and went in. CHAPTER VII Fears and Discoveries