y_
frock? Solve that question, if you please, first of all."

"Quite a simple one, Miss Debenham. Just this: The murderer--or one of
them, as the case may be--entered this room by that middle window,
stabbed Sir Andrew with the stiletto, stolen for the purpose, of
course--then, in a frenzy lest he be discovered, caught hold of the
nearest thing and wiped the bloodstained instrument upon it, and then
made off as quickly as possible. You happened to be the nearest, no
doubt. So you were the person chosen. Did you not feel anything at all
of the action?"

She shook her head.

"Nothing that I remember. We were all so astonished when the light
failed that I don't remember anything at all about it. If it was done,
it was done gently--and my skirt is wide."

"And you think the murderer, the perpetrator of this wicked crime, was a
man, then, Mr. Deland?" put in the soft voice of Lady Paula at this
juncture.

Cleek spun around toward her, nodding emphatically.

"I do, indeed. No woman could have arranged the thing like this, Lady
Paula. The electricity would have been too difficult a problem for her,
in the first place, and then the shooting----"

"And how do you account for _that_, Mr. Deland?"

"Ah, that is a more difficult matter. How? By whose hand? We will get
back to our stage rehearsal for that, I think. Mr. Narkom, would you sit
down again in the chair? Thanks very much. It's only just for a moment.
Now, if you ladies would take up your positions again as they were, I'd
be very much obliged. Let me see. The shot entered the temple here above
the left eye and passed clean through the head into the wall of the room
beyond. An acute angle of fifty degrees. H'm. That would bring it to
about over there and to a level with the top of that wood-panelling.
Then the bullet must be located somewhere in that vicinity, from all
logical reasonings. But where? Come, Mr. Narkom, just a moment. Lend me
your keen eyes, will you? And we'll have a look together. It'll want
careful looking, I'll warrant. But the panelling's in fine condition and
shows every mark. I-- Gad! and here it is too!"

His finger paused upon a slight, dark puncture in the darkness of the
wood, and he whirled round and faced them all, eyes alight, face aglow,
and marking the spot with his finger-nail. "Here, lend me your knife, my
friend, and we'll dig it out. That will establish a pretty good clue, I
can promise you. And a soundless pistol-shot--an air-gu