“Now I am frank to say that until the murder of the wireless operator, I was completely lost in this case. Inexcusably so. But then my brain recovered its strength. I ploughed ahead. After all, it was obvious. Behold! Of all those who knew and might have killed Mrs. Breese, only one was absent from the house at the time. He was equipped with a magnificent alibi. He was dining at the American Minister’s. “I thought to myself: ‘Suppose I wanted to murder this woman! What would be my first move?’ Naturally, my first move would be to protect myself. Mr. Thomas made no such move. Mr. Breese made no such move. Then I thought to myself: ‘What is the best way of protecting oneself while committing murder?’ And my logical brain replied: ‘By not being present at the scene of the crime.’ “But you would say that is impossible. No. Then one must seek an accomplice. I worked on that basis for many days, looking for the accomplice. Naturally, when Trenholm was killed, I judged immediately that he was the accomplice. But no one saw Trenholm near the scene of the crime. I could not understand it. “Then I delved into Trenholm’s background. He was a wireless operator. He was a mechanic. I sought any and every possible means of connecting him with this house. Methodically by elimination, I finally came to the radio set. I saw light. “Remember, Trenholm never met Mrs. Breese. He was but recently engaged for the yacht. At this point, I must interrupt myself to say that the mechanical murder is not unfamiliar to me. It is the refuge of either cowards or master criminals. In my country, bombs have been placed in pianos, and even attached to typewriters. But these devices make fearful noise, and are open to detection. “So it remained for our friend, Rice, to single out Mr. Trenholm. What his arguments were I do not know, and it does not matter. In any case, this is what Mr. Trenholm did for Mr. Rice.” The Russian pulled open the case of the radio. “Mr. Trenholm took an ordinary revolver, equipped with a silencer, quite common these days. He placed it upon this small stand. He built a lever, a small piece of metal, connecting with the dial and the trigger of the revolver. Come closer and you shall see. The revolver is no longer loaded. Observe that when the dial comes to sixty, the lever has pressed the trigger back and the revolver explodes. Observe that the weapon is so placed in the aperture for the loud speaker that its explosion leaves no mark upon the instrument. “Simple, is it not? Now, Mr. Rice had, as I have indicated, certain reasons for ridding himself of Mrs. Breese. He had been her business adviser, and consequently handled her funds. Unfortunately, Mr. Rice diverted these funds to his own use, and some of his ventures and speculations were unsuccessful.