"In that case would there not have been, in addition to the defined blood stains of footmarks, smears of blood upon the floor?" "I was coming to that. There is no doubt that a prolonged struggle took place, but the absence of blood-smears, such as would have been caused by the naked feet of the deceased, proves that the wound from which the blood proceeded could not have been inflicted during the struggle." "Before or after?" "After. If blood had dropped upon the floor before the struggle it would have taken some time to dry, and signs of dragging feet would have been observable. Besides, there would have been blood-stains on the naked feet of the deceased. There were none. Examining farther I discovered a bullet in the wall, which I extracted, and which must have been fired within the last two or three weeks. The bore is .320, the barrel of the pistol, four inch. The weapon used was probably a Colt's ejector revolver." "Probably, you say. Did you not find the pistol?" "No. I inquired of Mr. Remington whether he had found one. He had not." "So that you cannot say whether the shot was fired by the deceased or his assailant?" "I cannot say." "Was that the only bullet you found?" "The only one. My examination of these two rooms concluded, I turned my attention to other parts of the house. On the stairs leading from the street door to the bedroom I picked up two pieces of brown paper, with small pieces of wax adhering to them." "Did you examine the back of the premises?" "Yes. Over the basement rooms, which had not been used for a considerable time, was a window which had been broken from without, and broken by an unskilled hand." "How do you arrive at the conclusion that the window was broken from without?" "By the splinters of glass on the floor of the room, and by the broken pieces remaining in the panes, the jagged edges of which are a verification of my statement." "We should like to hear your reason for saying that the hand that broke the window was unskilled?" "A regular burglar would have been provided with tools which would have enabled him to cut the glass without running the risk of personal injury." "But might not such a man have adopted these rougher means for the purpose of averting suspicion?" "I have never known it done by a skilled burglar. It was through this window that the man effected an entrance. Continuing my investigation I came to the wall which surrounds the back of the house, and there I received confirmation of the theory I had formed. The man had brought with him a rope to which a grapnel was attached. This rope he had thrown up from the outside until the grapnel caught in the mortar at the top of the wall. Then he climbed up; the rest was easy. The marks of the grapnel are plainly discernible, and the freshness of the loosened mortar proves that but a short time has elapsed since he paid his last visit." "Is it your opinion that there was more than one visit?" "As to that I have formed no opinion."