stabbed from behind and to the heart, precluded
any possibility of his having jumped up and caught at the back of the
chair afterwards. Placing my left hand upon the back, I clasped my
fingers under the piece of wood above-mentioned, to discover that a
portion of the second finger fell exactly upon the stain.

"Now I think I understand the situation," I said to myself. "The old man
was seated at the table, about to commence his meal, when the murderer
entered very quietly by the door behind him. He rested his left hand
upon the chair to steady himself while he aimed the fatal blow with
his right."

But in that case how did the knife touch the middle finger of his left
hand? From the fact that the body was discovered lying upon its back
just as it had fallen, and that the chair was also still upon the floor,
it was evident that the blood must have got there before, not after, the
crime was committed. Leaving the room I went out to the yard at the back
and studied the paling fence. The partition which separated the yard
from that of the house next door, was old, and in a very dilapidated
condition, while that at the bottom was almost new, and was armed at the
top with a row of bristling nails. Bringing the powerful
magnifying-glass I had brought with me for such a purpose, to bear upon
it, I examined it carefully from end to end. The result more than
justified the labour. A little more than half way along I discovered
another small smear of blood. There could be no doubt that the man had
cut his finger on a nail as he had climbed over on his murderous errand.
The next and more important thing was to decide how this information was
to be made useful to me. Since nothing had been taken from the house,
and the old man had been quite unprepared for the attack that was to be
made upon him, I set the whole crime down as being one of revenge. In
that case what would the assassin be likely to do after his object was
obtained? Would he vanish into the Bush forthwith, or get away by sea?

After I had finished my inspection of the fence I visited every
public-house in the neighbourhood in the hope of finding out whether a
man with a wounded hand had been seen in any of them on the night of the
murder. I was totally unsuccessful, however. No one recollected having
seen such a man. From the hotels I went to various chemists' shops, but
with the same result. Next I tried the shipping-offices connected with
the lines of steamers leavi