d out of different revolvers of
the same calibre."

"Well, it is no use theorising about what happened in this room until
after the post-mortem," said Rolfe.

"You'd better give it some thought," suggested the inspector. "In the
meantime I want you to interview the people in the neighbourhood and
ascertain whether they heard any shots. They'll all say they did whether
they heard them or not--you know how people persuade themselves into
imagining things so as to get some sort of prominence in these crimes.
But you can sift what they tell you and preserve the grain of truth. Try
and get them to be accurate as to the time, as we want to fix the time of
the crime as near as possible. Ask Flack to tell you something about the
neighbours--he's been in this district fifteen years, and ought to know
all about them. While you're away I'll go through these private papers. I
want to find out why he came back from Scotland so suddenly. If we knew
that the rest might be easy."

"I haven't seen the body yet," said Rolfe. "I'd like to look at it.
Where is it?"

"I had it removed downstairs. You will find it in a big room on the left
as you go down the hall. By the by, there is another matter, Rolfe. This
glove was found in the room. It may be a clue, but it is more likely
that it is one of Sir Horace's gloves and that he lost the other one on
his way up from Scotland. It's a left-hand glove--men always lose the
right-hand glove because they take it off so often. I've compared it
with other gloves in Sir Horace's wardrobe, and I find it is the same
size and much the same quality. But find out from Sir Horace's hosier if
he sold it. Here's the address of the hosiers,--Bruden and Marshall, in
the Strand."

Rolfe went slowly downstairs into the room in which the corpse lay, and
closed the door behind him. It was a very large room, overlooking the
garden on the right side of the house. Somebody had lowered the Venetian
blinds as a conventional intimation to the outside world that the house
was one of mourning, and the room was almost dark. For nearly a minute
Rolfe stood in silence, his hand resting on the knob of the door he had
closed behind him. Gradually the outline of the room and the objects
within it began to reveal themselves in shadowy shape as his eyes became
accustomed to the dim light. He had a growing impression of a big lofty
room, with heavy furniture, and a huddled up figure lying on a couch at
the end furthest from t