rity suggests
two facts. In the first place, the shot must have been fired at very
close range--very close indeed, considering the smallness of the
revolver and the largeness of the burnt hole. In the next place,
somebody must have extinguished the burning fabric before you arrived,
otherwise it would have smouldered in an ever-widening ring until the
whole of the dead woman's garments were destroyed."

"Mrs. Heredith may have extinguished it herself in her dying moments,"
said Caldew, who had been following his companion's deductions with the
closest attention.

"That is unlikely, in view of the nature of her injuries. The bullet,
after traversing the left lung, lodged in the spinal column. After such
a wound Mrs. Heredith was not likely to be conscious of her actions."

"It may have been extinguished by Musard, who tried to stop the flow of
blood while Mrs. Heredith was dying."

"He would have mentioned it to you. It is my intention to ask him, but
my own opinion is that we are faced with a different explanation."

"What is that?"

"The presence of another person in the room."

"Somebody who escaped through the window!" exclaimed Caldew, placing his
own interpretation on the deduction. "Do you suspect anybody?"

"Not exactly. But I intend to investigate Captain Nepcote's actions on
the night of the murder."

Caldew, who lacked some of the information possessed by his companion,
found this jump too great for his mind to follow.

"For what purpose?" he asked. "Nepcote returned to France before the
murder was committed."

"He did not. He stayed in London that night, and did not return to
France until the following day. He explained that yesterday by stating
that when he reached London after leaving the moat-house he found
another telegram from the War Office extending his leave for twenty-four
hours."

"Merrington said nothing of this to me. All he told me was that you and
he had seen Nepcote, who identified the revolver as his property, and
said that he had left it behind at the moat-house by accident."

"Merrington is a man of fixed ideas, to use your phrase. He insisted on
trying to fit in the loss of the necklace with his own theory of Hazel
Rath's guilt. It was his obstinacy which led him to commit the folly of
going to see Captain Nepcote before endeavouring to trace the missing
necklace. It is only fair to Nepcote to add that he volunteered the
information that he did not return to France on the ni