suggested, that he was also her murderer; that he had killed
her during his first visit and drawn the shelves down upon her in the
second? Would not this account for all the phenomena to be observed in
connection with this otherwise unexplainable affair? Certainly, all but
one--one that was perhaps known to nobody but myself, and that was the
testimony given by the clock. _It_ said that the shelves fell at five,
whereas, according to Mr. Stone's evidence, it was four, or thereabouts,
when Mr. Van Burnam left his father's house. But the clock might not
have been a reliable witness. It might have been set wrong, or it might
not have been running at all at the time of the accident. No, it would
not do for me to rely too much upon anything so doubtful, nor did I; yet
I could not rid myself of the conviction that Howard spoke the truth
when he declared in face of Coroner and jury that they could not connect
him with this crime; and whether this conclusion sprang from
sentimentality or intuition, I was resolved to stick to it for the
present night at least. The morrow might show its futility, but the
morrow had not come.

Meanwhile, with this theory accepted, what explanation could be given of
the very peculiar facts surrounding this woman's death? Could the
supposition of suicide advanced by Howard before the Coroner be
entertained for a moment, or that equally improbable suggestion of
accident?

Going to my bureau drawer, I drew out the old grocer-bill which has
already figured in these pages, and re-read the notes I had scribbled
on its back early in the history of this affair. They related, if you
will remember, to this very question, and seemed even now to answer it
in a more or less convincing way. Will you pardon me if I transcribe
these notes again, as I cannot imagine my first deliberations on this
subject to have made a deep enough impression for you to recall them
without help from me.

The question raised in these notes was threefold, and the answers, as
you will recollect, were transcribed before the cause of death had been
determined by the discovery of the broken pin in the dead woman's brain.

These are the queries:

First: was her death due to accident?

Second: was it effected by her own hand?

Third: was it a murder?

The replies given are in the form of reasons, as witness:

_My reasons for not thinking it an accident._

1. If it had been an accident, and she had pulled the cabinet over upon