the window?"
he had turned suddenly, and his long, thin finger was
pointing to a hole which had been drilled right through the
lower window-sash about an inch above the bottom.
"by george!" cried the inspector. "how ever did you see
that?"
"because i looked for it."
"wonderful!" said the country doctor. "you are certainly
right, sir. then a third shot has been fired, and
therefore a third person must have been present. but who
could that have been and how could he have got away?"
"that is the problem which we are now about to solve," said
sherlock holmes. "you remember, inspector martin, when the
servants said that on leaving their room they were at once
conscious of a smell of powder i remarked that the point
was an extremely important one?"
"yes, sir; but i confess i did not quite follow you."
"it suggested that at the time of the firing the window as
well as the door of the room had been open. otherwise the
fumes of powder could not have been blown so rapidly
through the house. a draught in the room was necessary for
that. both door and window were only open for a very short
time, however."
"how do you prove that?"
"because the candle has not guttered."
"capital!" cried the inspector. "capital!"
"feeling sure that the window had been open at the time of
the tragedy i conceived that there might have been a third
person in the affair, who stood outside this opening and
fired through it. any shot directed at this person might
hit the sash. i looked, and there, sure enough, was the
bullet mark!"
"but how came the window to be shut and fastened?"
"the woman's first instinct would be to shut and fasten the
window. but, halloa! what is this?"
it was a lady's hand-bag which stood upon the study table --
a trim little hand-bag of crocodile-skin and silver.
holmes opened it and turned the contents out. there were
twenty fifty-pound notes of the bank of england, held
together by an india-rubber band -- nothing else.
"this must be preserved, for it will figure in the trial,"
said holmes, as he handed the bag with its contents to the
inspector. "it is now necessary that we should try to
throw some light upon this third bullet, which has clearly,
from the splintering of the wood, been fired from inside
the room. i should like to see mrs. king, the cook, again.
you said, mrs. king, that you were awakened by a _loud_
explosion. when you said that, did you mean that it seemed
to you to be louder than the second one?"
"well, sir, it wakened me from my sleep, and so it is hard
to judge. but it did seem very loud."
"you don't think that it might have been two shots fired
almost at the same instant?"
"i am sure i couldn't say, sir."
"i believe that it was undoubtedly so. i rather think,
inspector martin, that we have now exhausted all that this
room can teach us. if you will kindly step round with me,
we shall see what fresh evidence the garden has to offer."
a flower-bed extended up to the study window, and we all
broke into an exclamation as we approached it. the flowers
were trampled down, and the soft soil was imprinted all
over with footmarks. large, masculine feet they were, with
peculiarly long, sharp toes. holmes hunted about among the
grass and leaves like a retriever after a wounded bird.
then, with a cry of satisfaction, he bent forward and
picked up a little brazen cylinder.
"i thought so," said he; "the revolver had an ejector, and
here is the third cartridge. i really think, inspector
martin, that our case is almost complete."
the country inspector's face had shown his intense
amazement at the rapid and masterful progress of holmes's
investigation. at first he had shown some disposition to
assert his own position; but now he was overcome with
admiration and ready to follow without question wherever
holmes led.
"whom do you suspect?" he asked.
"i'll go into that later. there are several points in this
problem which i have not been able to explain to you yet.
now that i have got so far i had best proceed on my own
lines, and then clear the whole matter up once and for
all."
"just as you wish, mr. holmes, so long as we get our man."
"i have no desire to make mysteries, but it is impossible
at the moment of action to enter into long and complex
explanations. i have the threads of this affair all in my
hand. even if this lady should never recover consciousness
we can still reconstruct the events of last night and
ensure that justice be done. first of all i wish to know
whether there is any inn in this neighbourhood known as
'elrige's'?"
the servants were cross-questioned, but none of them had
heard of such a place. the stable-boy threw a light upon
the matter by remembering that a farmer of that name lived
some miles off in the direction of east ruston.
"is it a lonely far
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