the shed, and collars one; there's a fight; one of them loses
his temper and his head, and makes a swinging job of it. Now, Mr. Trent,
pick that to pieces."

"Very well," said Trent. "Just to oblige you, Murch--especially as I
know you don't believe a word of it. First: no traces of any kind left
by your burglar or burglars, and the window found fastened in the
morning--according to Martin. Not much force in that, I allow. Next:
nobody in the house hears anything of this stampede through the library,
nor hears any shout from Manderson either inside the house or outside.
Next: Manderson goes down without a word to anybody, though Bunner and
Martin are both at hand. Next: did you ever hear in your long experience
of a householder getting up in the night to pounce on burglars, who
dressed himself fully, with underclothing, shirt, collar and tie,
trousers, waistcoat and coat, socks and hard leather shoes; and who gave
the finishing touches to a somewhat dandified toilet by doing his hair
and putting on his watch and chain? Personally, I call that
over-dressing the part. The only decorative detail he seems to have
forgotten is his teeth."

The inspector leaned forward thinking, his large hands clasped before
him. "No," he said at last. "Of course there's no help in that theory. I
rather expect we have some way to go before we find out why a man gets
up before the servants are awake, dresses himself fully, and is murdered
within sight of his house early enough to be cold and stiff by ten in
the morning."

Trent shook his head. "We can't build anything on that last
consideration. I've gone into the subject with people who know. I
shouldn't wonder," he added, "if the traditional notions about loss of
temperature and rigor after death had occasionally brought an innocent
man to the gallows, or near it. Dr. Stock has them all, I feel sure:
most general practitioners of the older generation have. That Dr. Stock
will make an ass of himself at the inquest is almost as certain as that
to-morrow's sun will rise. I've seen him. He will say the body must have
been dead about so long, because of the degree of coldness and _rigor
mortis_. I can see him nosing it all out in some text-book that was out
of date when he was a student. Listen, Murch, and I will tell you some
facts which will be a great hindrance to you in your professional
career. There are many things that may hasten or retard the cooling of
the body. This one was lying in