took place? That, instead of
answering his master with the suave obsequious humility of the
well-trained servant, he revealed the baffled ferocity of a criminal
whose carefully arranged plan seemed to have miscarried; that his master
angrily rebuked him, and Hill, losing control of himself, sprang at Sir
Horace, and the struggle ended with Hill drawing a revolver and shooting
his master?

"The rest of the story from that point can be constructed without
difficulty. The murderer's first thought was to divert suspicion from
himself, and the best way to do that was to divert suspicion elsewhere.
He locked up the house and went to see Birchill. He urged Birchill to
break into Riversbrook, in which the dead body of the murdered man lay.
It is true that he need not have told Birchill that Sir Horace had
returned unexpectedly; but his object in doing so was to make Birchill
search about the house until he inadvertently stumbled across the dead
body. Had Birchill been under the impression that he had broken into an
entirely empty house he would have collected the valuables and might not
have entered the library in which the dead body lay. It was necessary
for Hill's purpose that Birchill should come across the corpse; then he
would be vitally interested in diverting suspicion from himself
(Birchill) and that is why he cunningly revealed to Birchill that Sir
Horace had returned. I put it to the jury that such is a more probable
explanation of how Sir Horace met his death than that he was shot down
by Birchill. I ask you again to remember that the body was fully dressed
when it was found by the police. I put it to you that in this matter the
prisoner walked into a trap prepared by his more cunning fellow
criminal. And I urge you, with all the earnestness it is possible for a
man to use when the life of a fellow creature is at stake, not to be led
into a trap--not to play the part this cunning criminal Hill has
designed for you--in the sacrifice of the life of an innocent man for
the purpose of saving himself from his just deserts. Looking at the
whole case--as you will not fail to do--with the breadth of view of
experienced men of the world, with some knowledge of the workings of
human nature, with a natural horror of the depths of cunning of which
some natures are capable, with a deep sense of the solemn responsibility
for a human life upon you, I confidently appeal to you to say that the
prisoner was not the man who shot Sir H