e still unopened. At the conclusion
of the interview I accompanied Doctor Norbury down to the street door,
and we stood on the doorstep conversing for perhaps a quarter of an
hour. Then Doctor Norbury went away and I returned upstairs.

"Now the house in Queen Square is virtually a museum. The upper part
is separated from the lower by a massive door which opens from the hall
and gives access to the staircase and which is fitted with a Chubb
night-latch. There are two latch-keys, of which John used to keep one
and I the other. You will find them both in the safe behind me. The
caretaker had no key and no access to the upper part of the house
unless admitted by one of us.

"At the time when I came in, after Doctor Norbury had left, the
caretaker was in the cellar, where I could hear him breaking coke for
the hot-water furnace. I had left John on the third floor opening some
of the packing-cases by the light of a lamp with a tool somewhat like a
plasterer's hammer; that is, a hammer with a small axe-blade at the
reverse of the head. As I stood talking to Doctor Norbury, I could
hear him knocking out the nails and wrenching up the lids; and when I
entered the doorway leading to the stairs, I could still hear him.
Just as I closed the staircase door behind me, I heard a rumbling noise
from above; then all was still.

"I went up the stairs to the second floor, where, as the staircase was
all in darkness, I stopped to light the gas. As I turned to ascend the
next flight, I saw a hand projecting over the edge of the half-way
landing. I ran up the stairs, and there, on the landing, I saw John
lying huddled up in a heap at the foot of the top flight. There was a
wound at the side of his forehead from which a little blood was
trickling. The case-opener lay on the floor close by him and there was
blood on the axe-blade. When I looked up the stairs I saw a rag of
torn matting over the top stair.

"It was quite easy to see what had happened. He had walked quickly out
on the landing with the case-opener in his hand. His foot had caught
in the torn matting and he had pitched head foremost down the stairs
still holding the case-opener. He had fallen so that his head had come
down on the upturned edge of the axe-blade; he had then rolled over and
the case-opener had dropped from his hand.

"I lit a wax match and stooped down to look at him. His head was in a
very peculiar position, which made me suspect that his nec