the
investigator went from one object to another; nothing seemed to escape
him, nothing was too small for his attention. One of the first things
that he did was to get a chair and plant it against the lettered door
that led directly into the hall. At the top was a gong with a
spring-hammer, one of the sort that rings its warning whenever the
door is opened; and this the investigator examined with care.

He then passed into the railed space where the body had lain and where
the darkened trail of blood still bore ghastly testimony to what had
occurred. The man's singular eyes scanned the floor, the walls, the
flat-topped desk. On this last his attention again became riveted; and
once more Pendleton heard his breath drawn sharply between his teeth.

"When Hume was struck upon the head," said Ashton-Kirk, after a
moment, "he was standing at this desk. He had just sprung up, probably
upon hearing a sound of some kind. See where the chair is pushed back
against the wall, just as he would have pushed it had he arisen
hastily. When he struck he fell across the desk." He pointed to a dark
trickle of blood down the back of the piece of furniture in question.
"That is the result of the blow upon the head, and probably flowed
from the mouth or nostrils. After the first senseless lurch the body
settled back and slid to the position in which it was found. Here is
a blotting pad, a small pair of shears, a box of clips and a letter
scale upon the floor where the sliding body dragged them. The top of
the desk is of polished wood; it is perfectly smooth; there are no
crevices or anything of the sort to catch hold of anything. When the
body slipped from it, it must have swept everything with it, cleanly.
And yet," bending forward over the desk and picking up a minute red
particle, "here, directly in the center, we find this."

"What is it?" asked Pendleton, eagerly.

Ashton-Kirk placed the red particle on his palm and held it out. It
was shaped like a keystone, and had apparently been cut from something
that had been printed upon.

"It is that portion of a railroad ticket which a conductor's punch
bites out, and which litters the floor and the seats in trains. Have
you never had one fall from your clothes after a railroad journey?"

Pendleton looked at the tiny red fragment, and then at the desk.

"If Hume fell across the desk, as you've just said," he remarked,
slowly, "and pulled all these other things to the floor with him--why