5.15 P.M. Miss Trevert goes to fetch Mr. Parrish in to tea. She finds the library door locked. Tries the handle and hears a shot. 5.18 (say) Miss Trevert comes into the lounge hall and gives the alarm. “Now, sir,” said Mr. Manderton briskly, “I should like to ask you one or two further questions. Firstly, how long were you out on your stroll in the dark?” “I should think about two or three minutes.” “That is to say, if you left the house by the side door at 5.10, you were back in the house by 5.13.” “Yes, that would be right,” Robin agreed. “And what did you do when you came in?” “I went up to my room to fetch a letter for the post.” “Miss Trevert heard the shot fired at 5.15. Where were you at that time?” “In my bedroom, I should say. I was there for a few minutes as I had to write a cheque....” “And where is your bedroom?” “In the other wing above the billiard-room.” “Hm! A pistol shot makes a great deal of noise. It seems strange that nobody in the house should have heard it.” Here Bude interposed. “Mr. Parrish, sir, was very particular about noise. He had the library door and the door leading from the front hall to the library corridor specially felted so that he should not hear any sounds from the house when he was working in the library. That library wing was absolutely shut off from the rest of the house. It was always uncommon quiet....” But the detective, ignoring him, turned to Robin again. “I have been round the house,” he said. “It does not seem to me it ought to take you three or even two minutes to walk from the side door to the front door. I should say it would be a matter of about thirty seconds!” “Excuse me,” Robin answered quickly, “I didn’t say I went straight from the side to the front door. I went through the gardens following the path that leads to the main drive. There I turned and came back to the front door.” “And you assert that you heard nothing?” “I heard nothing.” “Neither the ‘loud voices’ which the butler heard within two minutes of your leaving the house nor the shot fired five minutes later?” “I heard nothing.” Mr. Manderton examined the toes of his boots carefully. “You heard nothing!” he repeated. The door opened suddenly and Dr. Romain appeared. With him was the village practitioner and Inspector Humphries. Dr. Redstone carried in his hand a little pad of cotton wool. He bore it over to the fireplace and unwrapping the lint showed a twisted fragment of lead lying on the bloodstained dressing. “Straight through the heart and lodged in the spine,” he said. “Death was absolutely instantaneous.” The detective picked up the bullet and scrutinized it closely. “Browning pistol ammunition,” observed Humphries; “it fits the gun he used. There’s half a dozen spare rounds in one of the drawers of his dressing-room upstairs.”