"Well, sir," said the superintendent. "The body was found near the door
as I was pointing out, but it's a funny thing that a small table had
been upset apparently, and Bisset tells us that that table stood near
the window."
"Humph," grunted Simon sceptically.
"I'm quite sure of it, Mr. Rattar," said Bisset confidently, looking
round from his work of measurement.
"No positive proof it was upset," said the lawyer.
"Did you find it upset?" asked Ned.
The lawyer shook his head emphatically and significantly, and the
superintendent agreed.
"No, it was standing just where it is now near the wall."
"Then why do you think it was upset?"
"I picked up yon bits of sealing wax and yon piece of India rubber,"
said Bisset, looking round again. "I know they were on the wee table
yesterday and I found them under the curtain in the morning and the
table moved over to the wall. It follows that the table has been cowpit
and then set up again in another place, and the other things on it put
back. Is that not a fair deduction, sir?"
Ned nodded thoughtfully.
"Seems to me so," he said.
"It seems likely enough," the superintendent also agreed. "And if that's
the case there would seem to have been some kind of ongoings near the
window."
The Procurator Fiscal still seemed unconvinced.
"Nothing to go on. No proper evidence. It leads nowhere definitely," he
said.
"Well now," continued the superintendent, "the question is--how did the
murderer get into the room? The door was found locked and the key had
been taken away, so whether he had locked it from the inside or the
outside we can't tell. There's small chance of finding the key, I doubt,
for a key's a thing easy hidden away."
"So he might have come in by the door and then left by the door and
locked it after him," said Ned. "Or he might have come in by the window,
locked the door and gone out by the window. Or he might have come in by
the window and gone out by the door, locking it after him. Those are all
the chances, aren't they?"
"Indeed, that seems to be them all," said the superintendent with a note
of admiration for this clear exposition that seemed to indicate he was
better himself at details than deductions.
"And now what about the window? Was that open or shut or what?"
"Shut but not snibbed, sir."
Ned turned to Bisset.
"Did Sir Reginald ever forget to snib the windows, supposing one
happened to be open?"
"Practically never, sir."
"Last thing before he left the room, I suppose?" said the lawyer.
The butler hesitated.
"I suppose so, sir," he admitted, "but of course I was never here to
see."
"Exactly!" said Simon. "Therefore one can draw no conclusions as to
whether the window had been standing all the time just as it is now, or
whether it had been opened and shut again from the outside; seeing that
Sir Reginald was presumably killed before his usual time for looking to
the windows."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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