id Inspector Carfon as he selected a cigar.
"Always glad to do what we can, although we are supposed to be a bit
old-fashioned," and he laughed the laugh of a man who can afford to
be tolerant.

"I've seen all there is in the papers," said Malcolm Sage. "Are
there any additional particulars?"

"There's one thing we haven't told the papers, and it wasn't
emphasised at the inquest." The inspector leaned forward
impressively.

Malcolm Sage remained immobile, his eyes on his finger-nails.

"The doctor," continued the inspector, "says that the professor had
been dead for about forty-eight hours, whereas we _know_ he'd eaten
a dinner about twenty-six hours before he was found."

Malcolm Sage looked up slowly. In his eyes there was an alert look
that told of keen interest.

"You challenged him?" he queried.

"Ra-_ther_," was the response, "but he got quite ratty. Said he'd
stake his professional reputation and all that sort of thing."

Malcolm Sage meditatively inclined his head several times in
succession; his hand felt mechanically for his fountain-pen.

"Then there was another thing that struck me as odd," continued
Inspector Carfon, intently examining the end of his cigar. "The
professor had evidently been destroying a lot of old correspondence.
The paper-basket was full of torn-up letters and envelopes, and the
grate was choc-a-bloc with charred paper. That also we kept to
ourselves."

"That all?"

"I think so," was the reply. "There's not the vestige of a clue that
I can find."

"I see," said Malcolm Sage, looking at a press-cutting lying before
him, "that it says there was a remarkable change in the professor's
appearance. He seemed to have become rejuvenated."

"The doctor said that sometimes 'death smites with a velvet hand.'
He was rather a poetic sort of chap," the inspector added by way of
explanation.

"He saw nothing extraordinary in the circumstance?"

"No," was the response. "He seemed to think he was the only one who
had ever seen a dead man before. I wouldn't mind betting I've seen
as many stiffs as he has, although perhaps he's caused more."

Then as Malcolm Sage made no comment, the inspector proceeded.

"What I want to know is what was the professor doing while the door
was being broken open?"

"There were no signs of a struggle?" enquired Malcolm Sage, drawing
a cottage upon his thumbnail.

"None. He seems to have been attacked unexpectedly from behind."

"Was there anything mi