The Canterbury Puzzles, and Other Curious ProblemsDudeney, Henry Ernest
Science
The Canterbury Puzzles, and Other Curious Problems
Dudeney, Henry Ernest
Puzzles; Riddles
It will be seen that the sting lies in the tail. That steady growth of
the grass is such a reasonable point to be considered, and yet to some
readers it will cause considerable perplexity. The grass is, of course,
assumed to be of equal length and uniform thickness in every case when
the cattle begin to eat. The difficulty is not so great as it appears, if
you properly attack the question.
112.--_The Great Grangemoor Mystery._
Mr. Stanton Mowbray was a very wealthy man, a reputed millionaire,
residing in that beautiful old mansion that has figured so much in
English history, Grangemoor Park. He was a bachelor, spent most of the
year at home, and lived quietly enough.
According to the evidence given, on the day preceding the night of the
crime he received by the second post a single letter, the contents of
which evidently gave him a shock. At ten o'clock at night he dismissed
the servants, saying that he had some important business matters to look
into, and would be sitting up late. He would require no attendance. It
was supposed that after all had gone to bed he had admitted some person
to the house, for one of the servants was positive that she had heard
loud conversation at a very late hour.
Next morning, at a quarter to seven o'clock, one of the man-servants, on
entering the room, found Mr. Mowbray lying on the floor, shot through the
head, and quite dead. Now we come to the curious circumstance of the
case. It was clear that after the bullet had passed out of the dead man's
head it had struck the tall clock in the room, right in the very centre
of the face, and actually welded together the three hands; for the clock
had a seconds hand that revolved round the same dial as the hour and
minute hands. But although the three hands had become welded together
exactly as they stood in relation to each other at the moment of impact,
yet they were free to revolve round the swivel in one piece, and had been
stupidly spun round several times by the servants before Mr. Wiley Slyman
was called upon the spot. But they would not move separately.
[Illustration]
Now, inquiries by the police in the neighbourhood led to the arrest in
London of a stranger who was identified by several persons as having been
seen in the district the day before the murder, but it was ascertained
beyond doubt at what time on the fateful morning he went away by train.
If the crime took place after his departure, his innocence was
established. For this and other reasons it was of the first importance to
fix the exact time of the pistol shot, the sound of which nobody in the
house had heard. The clock face in the illustration shows exactly how the
hands were found. Mr. Slyman was asked to give the police the benefit of
his sagacity and experience, and directly he was shown the clock he
smiled and said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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