Jeremy if he flung me into jail and the newspapers while doing it.

"We'll have a go at the floors under the carpets now," he said. "If he
gets noisy, you can go down with the fire-tongs. I understand you are an
expert with them."

The dressing-room had a large rug, like the nursery above it, and
turning back the carpet was a simple matter. There had been a stain
beneath where the dead man's head had lain, but it had been scrubbed and
scraped away. The boards were white for an area of a square foot or so.

Sperry eyed the spot with indifference. "Not essential," he said. "Shows
good housekeeping. That's all. The point is, are there other spots?"

And, after a time, we found what we were after. The upper hall was
carpeted, and my penknife came into requisition to lift the tacks. They
came up rather easily, as if but recently put in. That, indeed, proved
to be the case.

Just outside the dressing-room door the boards for an area of two square
feet or more beneath the carpet had been scraped and scrubbed. With the
lifting of the carpet came, too, a strong odor, as of ammonia. But the
stain of blood had absolutely disappeared.

Sperry, kneeling on the floor with the candle held close, examined the
wood. "Not only scrubbed," he said, "but scraped down, probably with
a floor-scraper. It's pretty clear, Horace. The poor devil fell here.
There was a struggle, and he went down. He lay there for a while, too,
until some plan was thought out. A man does not usually kill himself in
a hallway. It's a sort of solitary deed. He fell here, and was dragged
into the room. The angle of the bullet in the ceiling would probably
show it came from here, too, and went through the doorway."

We were startled at that moment by a loud banging below. Sperry leaped
to his feet and caught up his hat.

"The watchman," he said. "We'd better get out. He'll have all the
neighbors in at that rate."

He was still hammering on the door as we went down the rear stairs, and
Sperry stood outside the door and to one side.

"Keep out of range, Horace," he cautioned me. And to the watchman:

"Now, George, we will put the key under the door, and in ten minutes you
may come out. Don't come sooner. I've warned you."

By the faint light from outside I could see him stooping, not in front
of the door, but behind it. And it was well he did, for the moment
the key was on the other side, a shot zipped through one of the lower
panels. I had not expected it a