und the key inside. The key would, on
this theory, be on the floor as the outside locking could not have been
effected if it had been in the lock. The first persons to enter the room
would naturally believe it had been thrown down in the bursting of the
door. Or it might have been left sticking very loosely inside the lock
so as not to interfere with the turning of the outside key in which case
it would also probably have been thrown to the ground."

"Indeed. Very ingenious. And can you also explain how the prisoner could
have bolted the door within from the outside?"

"I can. (Renewed sensation.) There is only one way in which it was
possible--and that was, of course, a mere conjurer's illusion. To cause
a locked door to appear bolted in addition, it would only be necessary
for the person on the inside of the door to wrest the staple containing
the bolt from the woodwork. The bolt in Mr. Constant's bedroom worked
perpendicularly. When the staple was torn off, it would simply remain at
rest on the pin of the bolt instead of supporting it or keeping it
fixed. A person bursting open the door and finding the staple resting on
the pin and torn away from the lintel of the door, would, of course,
imagine he had torn it away, never dreaming the wresting off had been
done beforehand." (Applause in court, which was instantly checked by the
ushers.) The counsel for the defense felt he had been entrapped in
attempting to be sarcastic with the redoubtable detective. Grodman
seemed green with envy. It was the one thing he had not thought of.

Mrs. Drabdump, Grodman, Inspector Howlett, and Sergeant Runnymede were
recalled and re-examined by the embarrassed Sir Charles Brown-Harland as
to the exact condition of the lock and the bolt and the position of the
key. It turned out as Wimp had suggested; so prepossessed were the
witnesses with the conviction that the door was locked and bolted from
the inside when it was burst open that they were a little hazy about the
exact details. The damage had been repaired, so that it was all a
question of precise past observation. The inspector and the sergeant
testified that the key was in the lock when they saw it, though both the
mortise and the bolt were broken. They were not prepared to say that
Wimp's theory was impossible; they would even admit it was quite
possible that the staple of the bolt had been torn off beforehand. Mrs.
Drabdump could give no clear account of such petty facts in view