these wounds, and since you have
already pretty well described them to the newspaper reporters, it can
do no harm to repeat the details to me."

"None in the least, Colonel."

"Then you feel sure the stab wound killed her?"

"Reasonably so. Of course, as I said, either blow could have caused
death, but blows on the head, even when the skull is badly fractured,
as in this case, do not invariably cause death instantly. In fact the
victim usually lingers for several hours in an unconscious state. Not
so, however, in the case of a stab wound in or near the heart. That is
almost always fatal within a short space of time--a minute or two. So,
while it is possible that Mrs. Darcy was first stunned by a blow on the
head, which eventually would have killed her, I think death almost at
once followed the stab wound."

"Could both have been delivered by the same person?"

"Of course. First the blow on the head, followed by the stab wound."

"And there were no other injuries on the body?"

"None, except minor bruises caused by the fall to the floor. But they
were superficial."

"Nothing else?"

"No--um let me see--no, I think not."

"Are you _sure_, Dr. Warren?"

The colonel's voice had a strange ring in it.

"Why, yes, I am sure. I was about to say that there was a slight
abrasion in the palm of the left hand, a sort of scratch or puncture,
as though from a pin, but as she was in the jewelry business and, as I
understand it, often made slight repairs herself to brooches and pins
brought in, this could easily be accounted for."

"A slight abrasion in the left hand you say?"

"Yes. But I don't attach any importance to that. It was so slight
that I and my assistant only gave it a passing glance. It hardly
penetrated the skin."

"I see. In the left hand. This is the hand in which the ticking watch
was found, was it not?"

"I believe so. The watch belonging to an Indian named Singa Phut. By
the way what became of him?" the doctor asked of Detective Carroll, who
had strolled out of the detectives' private room and was listening to
the conversation.

"Oh, that gink? He made a big howl about getting back his watch, and
as he had a perfectly good _alibi_, and we could fasten nothing on him,
we give it back to him and told him to beat it. He did, I guess."

"No, he is still in town," said Colonel Ashley. "I passed his place a
while ago. He has a pair of beautiful Benares candlesticks, in the
form of