down here in his dressing gown, trampled mud into a corner behind
the curtain in order to give the idea someone had waited for him,
opened the window, put blood on the--"

"We can surely dismiss that," said MacDonald.

"So I think. Suicide is out of the question. Then a murder has been
done. What we have to determine is, whether it was done by someone
outside or inside the house."

"Well, let's hear the argument."

"There are considerable difficulties both ways, and yet one or the
other it must be. We will suppose first that some person or persons
inside the house did the crime. They got this man down here at a time
when everything was still and yet no one was asleep. They then did the
deed with the queerest and noisiest weapon in the world so as to tell
everyone what had happened--a weapon that was never seen in the house
before. That does not seem a very likely start, does it?"

"No, it does not."

"Well, then, everyone is agreed that after the alarm was given only a
minute at the most had passed before the whole household--not Mr. Cecil
Barker alone, though he claims to have been the first, but Ames and all
of them were on the spot. Do you tell me that in that time the guilty
person managed to make footmarks in the corner, open the window, mark
the sill with blood, take the wedding ring off the dead man's finger,
and all the rest of it? It's impossible!"

"You put it very clearly," said Holmes. "I am inclined to agree with
you."

"Well, then, we are driven back to the theory that it was done by
someone from outside. We are still faced with some big difficulties;
but anyhow they have ceased to be impossibilities. The man got into the
house between four-thirty and six; that is to say, between dusk and the
time when the bridge was raised. There had been some visitors, and the
door was open; so there was nothing to prevent him. He may have been a
common burglar, or he may have had some private grudge against Mr.
Douglas. Since Mr. Douglas has spent most of his life in America, and
this shotgun seems to be an American weapon, it would seem that the
private grudge is the more likely theory. He slipped into this room
because it was the first he came to, and he hid behind the curtain.
There he remained until past eleven at night. At that time Mr. Douglas
entered the room. It was a short interview, if there were any interview
at all; for Mrs. Douglas declares that her husband had not left her
more than a few minute