use--'

Both men started, and the inspector checked his speech abruptly, as the
half-closed door of the bedroom was slowly pushed open, and a man stood
in the doorway. His eyes turned from the pistol in its open case to the
faces of Trent and the inspector. They, who had not heard a sound to
herald this entrance, simultaneously looked at his long, narrow feet. He
wore rubber-soled tennis shoes.

'You must be Mr Bunner,' said Trent.

CHAPTER VI: Mr Bunner on the Case

'Calvin C. Bunner, at your service,' amended the newcomer, with a touch
of punctilio, as he removed an unlighted cigar from his mouth. He was
used to finding Englishmen slow and ceremonious with strangers, and
Trent's quick remark plainly disconcerted him a little. 'You are Mr
Trent, I expect,' he went on. 'Mrs Manderson was telling me a while ago.
Captain, good-morning.' Mr Murch acknowledged the outlandish greeting
with a nod. 'I was coming up to my room, and I heard a strange voice in
here, so I thought I would take a look in.' Mr Bunner laughed easily.
'You thought I might have been eavesdropping, perhaps,' he said. 'No,
sir; I heard a word or two about a pistol--this one, I guess--and that's
all.'

Mr Bunner was a thin, rather short young man with a shaven, pale, bony,
almost girlish face, and large, dark, intelligent eyes. His waving dark
hair was parted in the middle. His lips, usually occupied with a cigar,
in its absence were always half open with a curious expression as of
permanent eagerness. By smoking or chewing a cigar this expression was
banished, and Mr Bunner then looked the consummately cool and sagacious
Yankee that he was.

Born in Connecticut, he had gone into a broker's office on leaving
college, and had attracted the notice of Manderson, whose business with
his firm he had often handled. The Colossus had watched him for some
time, and at length offered him the post of private secretary. Mr Bunner
was a pattern business man, trustworthy, long-headed, methodical, and
accurate. Manderson could have found many men with those virtues; but he
engaged Mr Bunner because he was also swift and secret, and had besides
a singular natural instinct in regard to the movements of the stock
market.

Trent and the American measured one another coolly with their eyes. Both
appeared satisfied with what they saw. 'I was having it explained to
me,' said Trent pleasantly, 'that my discovery of a pistol that might
have shot Manderson does not