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n that I had broken the bolt. Now I admit that this was so, only in things like this you do not seem to conclude, you jump so fast that you see, or seem to. On the other hand, when you see a standing ring of fire produced by whirling a burning stick, you do not believe in its continuous existence. It is the same when witnessing a legerdemain performance. Seeing is not always believing, despite the proverb; but believing is often seeing. It is not to the point that in that little matter of the door Wimp was as hopelessly and incurably wrong as he has been in everything all along. Though the door was securely bolted, I confess that I should have seen that I had broken the bolt in forcing the door, even if it had been broken beforehand. Never once since December 4th did this possibility occur to me, till Wimp with perverted ingenuity suggested it. If this is the case with a trained observer, one moreover fully conscious of this ineradicable tendency of the human mind, how must it be with an untrained observer?" "Come to the point, come to the point," said the Home Secretary, putting out his hand as if it itched to touch the bell on the writing-table. "Such as," went on Grodman imperturbably, "such as--Mrs. Drabdump. That worthy person is unable, by repeated violent knocking, to arouse her lodger who yet desires to be aroused; she becomes alarmed, she rushes across to get my assistance; I burst open the door--what do you think the good lady expected to see?" "Mr. Constant murdered, I suppose," murmured the Home Secretary, wonderingly. "Exactly. And so she saw it. And what should you think was the condition of Arthur Constant when the door yielded to my violent exertions and flew open?" "Why, was he not dead?" gasped the Home Secretary, his heart fluttering violently. "Dead? A young, healthy fellow like that! When the door flew open Arthur Constant was sleeping the sleep of the just. It was a deep, a very deep sleep, of course, else the blows at his door would long since have awakened him. But all the while Mrs. Drabdump's fancy was picturing her lodger cold and stark the poor young fellow was lying in bed in a nice warm sleep." "You mean to say you found Arthur Constant alive?" "As you were last night." The minister was silent, striving confusedly to take in the situation. Outside the crowd was cheering again. It was probably to pass the time. "Then, when was he murdered?" "Immediately afterward."
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