t with her hands. In that instant I had made my cut--precisely,
scientifically--made so deep a cut and drew out the weapon so sharply
that there was scarce a drop of blood on it; then there came from the
throat a jet of blood which Mrs. Drabdump, conscious only of the horrid
gash, saw but vaguely. I covered up the face quickly with a handkerchief
to hide any convulsive distortion. But as the medical evidence (in this
detail accurate) testified, death was instantaneous. I pocketed the
razor and the empty sulfonal phial. With a woman like Mrs. Drabdump to
watch me, I could do anything I pleased. I got her to draw my attention
to the fact that both the windows were fastened. Some fool, by the by,
thought there was a discrepancy in the evidence because the police found
only one window fastened, forgetting that, in my innocence, I took care
not to fasten the window I had opened to call for aid. Naturally I did
not call for aid before a considerable time had elapsed. There was Mrs.
Drabdump to quiet, and the excuse of making notes--as an old hand. My
object was to gain time. I wanted the body to be fairly cold and stiff
before being discovered, though there was not much danger here; for, as
you saw by the medical evidence, there is no telling the time of death
to an hour or two. The frank way in which I said the death was very
recent disarmed all suspicion, and even Dr. Robinson was unconsciously
worked upon, in adjudging the time of death, by the knowledge (query
here, Mr. Templeton) that it had preceded my advent on the scene.

"Before leaving Mrs. Drabdump there is just one point I should like to
say a word about. You have listened so patiently, sir, to my lectures on
the science of sciences that you will not refuse to hear the last. A
good deal of importance has been attached to Mrs. Drabdump's
oversleeping herself by half an hour. It happens that this (like the
innocent fog which has also been made responsible for much) is a purely
accidental and irrelevant circumstance. In all works on inductive logic
it is thoroughly recognized that only some of the circumstances of a
phenomenon are of its essence and causally interconnected; there is
always a certain proportion of heterogeneous accompaniments which have
no intimate relation whatever with the phenomenon. Yet so crude is as
yet the comprehension of the science of evidence, that every feature of
the phenomenon under investigation is made equally important, and sought
to b