frigeration caused to accumulate in the place and upon the
machine itself during rotation, and that last night shortly
after twelve o'clock he came down and broke off and carried away
three of them. How I came to know what motive power he employed
to launch the poisoned shaft can be explained in a word. Most of the
weapons--indeed, all but one--hanging on the wall of this armoury
are lightly coated with dust, showing that it must be a week or
more since any housemaid's work was attended to in this particular
quarter. One of them is not dusty. Furthermore, when I took it
down for the purpose of examining it I discovered that, although
smeared with ink or paint to make it look as old as the others, the
bowstring was of fresh catgut, and there was a suspicious dampness
about the 'catch,' which suggested either wet hands or the partial
melting, under the heat of living flesh, of the 'shaft,' which had
been an icicle. That's all, Doctor; that's all, Mr. Drake; that's
quite all, Lord Fallowfield. A good, true-hearted young chap
will get both the girl he wants and the inheritance which should be
his by right; a good, true friend will get back the ancestral home
he lost through misfortune and has regained through chance, and a
patient and faithful lady will, in all probability, get the man
she loves without now having to wait until he comes into a dead
man's shoes. Lady Marjorie, my compliments. Doctor, my best
respects, and gentlemen all--good afternoon."

And here with that weakness for the theatrical which was his
besetting sin, he bowed to them with his hat laid over his heart, and
walked out of the room.

CHAPTER XXXI

"No, Mr. Narkom, no. As an instrument of death the icicle is _not_
new," said Cleek, answering the superintendent's question as the
limousine swung out through the gates of Heatherington Hall and
faced the long journey back to London. "If you will look up the
records of that energetic female, Catherine de Medici, Queen of
France, you will find that she employed it in that capacity upon
two separate occasions; and coming down to more modern times, you
will also find that in the year 1872 the Russian, Lydia Bolorfska,
used it at Galitch, in the province of Kostroma, to stab her
sleeping husband. But as a projectile, it _is_ new--as a _successful_
projectile, I mean--for there have been many attempts made, owing
to its propensity to dissolve after use, to discharge it from
firearms, but never in on