Detective and mystery stories; Gethryn, Anthony (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction
“I became aware that of the two first-floor windows of Abbotshall
which (see Part I.) are over the window through which the murderer
entered the study, the more easterly must have been the one used by
the murderer. For I saw what I had not seen at first, that it would be
almost an impossibility for a man descending by a rope from the other
window to swing his legs, at the end of the descent, on to the sill of
the study window, since that window is not exactly, as one would find
in a house younger and less altered than Abbotshall, between the two
first-floor windows above it but has most of its length beneath the
more easterly. Moreover, although a man descending from the less
easterly window might possibly have struck with his foot that one
shoot of creeper in the cleared space beside the drain-pipe (see Part
I.), he would also be bound to do damage to the main body of the
creeper—and that is uninjured.
“It was, in fact, obvious that the murderer had come out of the room
with the more easterly window. (I was annoyed with myself for not
having seen this sooner.)
“That window is to the room occupied as a sitting-room by Sir Arthur
Digby-Coates.
“My suspect amateur carpenter was Sir Arthur Digby-Coates.
“When at last I put to Deacon my question of who had given him any
implement with a wooden handle to hold, the answer was: ‘Sir Arthur
Digby-Coates.’
“(_Note._—Before going on to Part III, it might be well to explain
briefly the circumstances in which Deacon was induced to leave the
prints of his fingers on the handle. It is not essential, but may be
of interest. Deacon, when I asked him my question, explained that on
the morning of the day of the murder he passed by Digby-Coates’s
sitting-room. The door was open. Digby-Coates called to him to come
in. He entered to find, as _on several previous occasions_, that
Digby-Coates was amusing himself with the completing of an excellent
carved cabinet he had been engaged on for many weeks. Digby-Coates was
in difficulties, having, he explained, too few hands. Deacon was asked
to stand by. He did so, and assisted the enthusiast by handing from
the carpenter’s bench near the window, one tool after the other. Among
them was one, he just remembered, with a handle such as I had
described and such as he remembered the wood-rasp handle to be now
that he came to think of it.)
“So there you are. When I heard the story I felt, I confess, no little
admiration for Digby-Coates. He is so thorough! You see, this was not
the first time Deacon had given such assistance. And he knew Deacon
thought little and cared less about the whole business of
cabinet-making.
III
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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