"I charge Eleanor Owen with the murder of my aunt, Ann Elizabeth
Lewis. I have made some money, and, please God, I'll spend every
penny of it rather than my poor aunt shall remain unavenged."'

('All this is not evidence,' muttered the barrister, impatiently
scoring out the paragraph with his pencil. 'Why does Pollard put
in things like this? Perhaps it supplies a clue, though, to his
enthusiasm,' added Mr. Prescott thoughtfully. 'I dare say he's got
this Lewis behind him, and is bleeding him pretty freely. That
accounts for the figures on my brief, so I oughtn't to complain. But
I wish to goodness it were anybody but old Owen's daughter. Why, I
can remember kissing her when she was only six years old.')

'Sergeant Evans, who will be called as a witness, now proceeded to the
house and made a thorough search. Two important facts were now
discovered.

'The butler had left the house by the back door, but on returning with
Mr. Lewis the party entered by the front. Simons stepped forward with
his latchkey to open the door, but found the latch already lifted, and
stuck fast in its raised position.

'This was a thing which always occurred if the latch was lifted too
high. The keyhole is shaped like an inverted T, and the members of the
household who carried keys were generally careful not to push them
too far upward, lest this result should occur.

'Counsel will probably be inclined to see a sufficient explanation of
the incident in the agitation and haste by which a criminal would
naturally be overcome just after the commission of such a crime.'

('Yes; I suppose so.' The barrister paused for some time, knitted his
brows, and tried to think the matter out. 'Yes, it would be a natural
result,' he admitted at length, and resumed his reading.)

'The next discovery was equally important.

'Miss Lewis's bedroom window looked over the front garden. Immediately
below it, under the dining-room window, was a grating over a window,
which gave light to an underground scullery. This grating was
surrounded by a bed of shrubs, which concealed it from the eye of
visitors.

'Sergeant Evans's first move was to proceed to this spot. He was
rewarded by finding blood-stains on the grating. The nearest shrubs
had been roughly handled, and some of their leaves lay scattered
about.

'The inference which counsel is asked to draw is that the body--or a
portion of it--was lowered down through the window, and thence carried
away.

'This