"Yes. There was an evening paper on the floor, but I didn't examine it." "Anything else?" "On the table there was a whisky decanter, taken from the tantalus stand on the sideboard, and one glass. That, by-the-bye," I added, "looked as though only one person were present." "So it did, perhaps, although the inference wouldn't be very strong. Go on." "There was a fruit-stand on the sideboard, with a plate beside it, containing a few nutshells, a piece of apple, a pair of nutcrackers, and, I think, some orange peel. There was, of course, all the ordinary furniture, but no chair pulled up to the table except that used by Foggatt himself. That's all I noticed, I think. Stay--there was an ash-tray on the table, and a partly-burned cigar near it--only one cigar, though." "Excellent--excellent, indeed, as far as memory and simple observation go. You saw everything plainly, and you remember everything. Surely _now_ you know how I found out that another man had just left?" "No, I don't; unless there were different kinds of ash in the ash-tray." "That is a fairly good suggestion, but there were not--there was only a single ash, corresponding in every way to that on the cigar. Don't you remember anything that I did as we went downstairs?" "You returned a bottle of oil to the housekeeper's daughter, I think." "I did. Doesn't that give you a hint? Come, you surely have it now?" "I haven't." [Illustration: "DOESN'T THAT GIVE YOU A HINT?"] "Then I shan't tell you; you don't deserve it. Think, and don't mention the subject again till you have at least one guess to make. The thing stares you in the face--you see it, you remember it, and yet you _won't_ see it. I won't encourage your slovenliness of thought, my boy, by telling you what you can know for yourself if you like. Good-bye--I'm off now. There is a case in hand I can't neglect." "Don't you propose to go further into this, then?" Hewitt shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not a policeman," he said. "The case is in very good hands. Of course, if anybody comes to me to do it as a matter of business, I'll take it up. It's very interesting, but I can't neglect my regular work for it. Naturally, I shall keep my eyes open and my memory in order. Sometimes these things come into the hands by themselves, as it were; in that case, of course, I am a loyal citizen, and ready to help the law. _Au revoir._" * * * * * I am a busy man myself, and thought little more of Hewitt's conundrum for some time--indeed, when I did think, I saw no way to the answer. A week after the inquest I took a holiday (I had written my nightly leaders regularly every day for the past five years), and saw no more of Hewitt for six weeks. After my return, with still a few days of leave to run, one evening we together turned into Luzatti's, off Coventry Street, for dinner.