the evening, two hours after the jury had brought in
their verdict against a person or persons unknown, I had completed my
work, and was in a position to state that two of the five large prints
made on the window-glasses, and the three on the bowl, were made by the
left hand of Marlowe; that the remaining three on the window and the two
on the drawer were made by his right hand.

By eight o'clock I had made at the establishment of Mr H. T. Copper,
photographer, of Bishopsbridge, and with his assistance, a dozen
enlarged prints of the finger-marks of Marlowe, clearly showing the
identity of those which he unknowingly made in my presence and those
left upon articles in his bedroom, with those found by me as I have
described, and thus establishing the facts that Marlowe was recently in
Manderson's bedroom, where he had in the ordinary way no business,
and in Mrs Manderson's room, where he had still less. I hope it may be
possible to reproduce these prints for publication with this dispatch.

At nine o'clock I was back in my room at the hotel and sitting down to
begin this manuscript. I had my story complete. I bring it to a close
by advancing these further propositions: that on the night of the murder
the impersonator of Manderson, being in Manderson's bedroom, told Mrs
Manderson, as he had already told Martin, that Marlowe was at that
moment on his way to Southampton; that having made his dispositions in
the room, he switched off the light, and lay in the bed in his clothes;
that he waited until he was assured that Mrs Manderson was asleep; that
he then arose and stealthily crossed Mrs Manderson's bedroom in his
stocking feet, having under his arm the bundle of clothing and shoes for
the body; that he stepped behind the curtain, pushing the doors of
the window a little further open with his hands, strode over the iron
railing of the balcony, and let himself down until only a drop of a few
feet separated him from the soft turf of the lawn.

All this might very well have been accomplished within half an hour of
his entering Manderson's bedroom, which, according to Martin, he did at
about half-past eleven.

What followed your readers and the authorities may conjecture for
themselves. The corpse was found next morning clothed--rather untidily.
Marlowe in the car appeared at Southampton by half-past six.

I bring this manuscript to an end in my sitting-room at the hotel at
Marlstone. It is four o'clock in the morning. I le