“Now for point (vi)—the entry by the window. As I have said, I agreed with the police that the murderer did enter by the window; but there our agreement ceased. It is a point in the crown’s case against Deacon that his are the only legs in the house long enough to enable their owner to clear the flower-bed in stepping from the flagged path to the low sill of the study window. This, I am sure, is, as evidence against Deacon, more than useless. I have not taken measurements, but it is obvious that even for his long legs, a step right into the study would be impossible. This being so, the fact that he could step on to the window-sill is of no importance whatever. For one thing, it would have been extremely difficult for him to retain balance; for another, if he had retained his balance, the necessary scrabbling at the window and the twisting and turning he would have had to perform to get legs and then body into the room would have attracted Hoode’s attention before he could see enough of the intruder to recognise him. And then the theory, agreed by the police, that Hoode did not rise from, or anyhow did not remain long out of, his chair, falls to the ground. “Now let us get back to my murderer. Yes, he got in by the window; but he left the flower-bed unmarked. Now, as he is a member of the household we know that his legs cannot be as long as Deacon’s. How, then, did he approach the window? “He must have (_a_) jumped over the flower-bed and into the room; (_b_) stepped on the flower-bed, but, on leaving, repaired or disguised the damage he had done; or (_c_) _got his feet on to the sill and his whole self into the room without having crossed the flower-bed_. “It is almost impossible that he should have done (_a_); (_b_) is unlikely, since after the murder the murderer had no time to spare. (This is proved later.) One is left, then, with the conviction that the real answer lies in (_c_). This means either that the murderer erupted through the floor or walls of the study or that _he descended the wall of the house and entered the open study window without ever reaching the earth in his journey_. (Entrance through the door is barred. Remember, we are taking Poole’s evidence on that point as reliable.)