thout
a thought. The unmarked surface of the snow shows that nobody alighted,
was thrown out, or fell out between the two points where the tragedy
must have occurred; both windows were shut and both doors of the
compartment locked when the train made its first stop; yet the fellow
was gone. My dear chap, are you sure, are you really _sure_, that it
isn't a case of suicide after all?"

Cleek gave his shoulders a lurch and smiled indulgently.

"My dear Mr. Narkom," he said, "the position of the revolver in the dead
man's hand ought, as I pointed out to you, to settle that question, even
if there were no other discrepancies. In the natural order of things, a
man who had just put a bullet into his own brain would, if he were
sitting erect, as Lord Stavornell was, drop the revolver in the
spasmodic opening and shutting of the hands in the final convulsion;
but, if he retained any sort of a hold upon it, be sure his forefinger
would be in the loop of the trigger. He wouldn't be holding the weapon
backward, so to speak, with the cylinder against the ball of his thumb
and the hammer against the base of the middle finger. If he had held it
that way he simply couldn't have shot himself if he had tried. Then, if
you didn't remark it, there was no scorch of powder upon the face, for
another thing; and, for a third, the bullet-hole was between the eyes, a
most unlikely target for a man bent upon blowing out his own brains; the
temple or the roof of the mouth are the points to which natural
impulse----" He stopped and laid a sharp, quick-shutting hand on the
shoulder of one of the two men who were operating the car. "Turn back!"
he exclaimed. "Reverse the action, and go back a dozen yards or so."

The impetus of the car would not permit of this at once, but after
running on for a little time longer it answered to the brake, slowed
down, stopped, and then began to back, scudding along the rail until
Cleek again called it to a halt. They were within gunshot of the station
at Sydenham when this occurred; the glaring searchlight was still
playing on the metals and the thin layer of snow between, and Cleek's
face seemed all eyes as he bent over and studied the ground over which
they were gliding. Of a sudden, however, he gave a little satisfied
grunt, jumped down, and picked up a shining metal object, about two and
a half inches long, which lay in the space between the tracks of the
main and the local lines. It was a guard's key for the