ndent, "the question is--how did the
murderer get into the room? The door was found locked and the key had
been taken away, so whether he had locked it from the inside or the
outside we can't tell. There's small chance of finding the key, I doubt,
for a key's a thing easy hidden away."

"So he might have come in by the door and then left by the door and
locked it after him," said Ned. "Or he might have come in by the window,
locked the door and gone out by the window. Or he might have come in by
the window and gone out by the door, locking it after him. Those are all
the chances, aren't they?"

"Indeed, that seems to be them all," said the superintendent with a note
of admiration for this clear exposition that seemed to indicate he was
better himself at details than deductions.

"And now what about the window? Was that open or shut or what?"

"Shut but not snibbed, sir."

Ned turned to Bisset.

"Did Sir Reginald ever forget to snib the windows, supposing one
happened to be open?"

"Practically never, sir."

"Last thing before he left the room, I suppose?" said the lawyer.

The butler hesitated.

"I suppose so, sir," he admitted, "but of course I was never here to
see."

"Exactly!" said Simon. "Therefore one can draw no conclusions as to
whether the window had been standing all the time just as it is now, or
whether it had been opened and shut again from the outside; seeing that
Sir Reginald was presumably killed before his usual time for looking to
the windows."

"Wait a bit!" said Ned. "I was assuming a window had been open. But were
the windows fastened before Sir Reginald came in to sit here last
thing?"

"Certainly they were that," said the butler emphatically.

"It was a mild night, he might have opened one himself," replied the
Procurator Fiscal. "Or supposing the man had come in and left again by
the door, what's more likely than that he unsnibbed the window to make
people think he had come that way?"

"He would surely have left it wide open," objected Ned.

"Might have thought that too obvious," replied the lawyer, "or might
have been afraid of the noise. Unsnibbing would be quite enough to
suggest entry that way."

Ned turned his keen eye hard on him.

"What's your own theory then?"

"I've none," grunted Simon. "No definite evidence one way or the other.
Mere guesses are no use."

Ned walked to the window and looked at it carefully. Then he threw it up
and looked out into the garden.