rossed the land, descended the low cliffs, and that one had
fallen on the other as soon as the sands were reached--the footmarks
indicated as much. I pointed them out to the police, who examined them
carefully, and agreed with me that one set was undoubtedly made by the
boots of the dead man while the other was caused by the pressure of
some light-footed, lightly-shoed person. And there being nothing else
to be seen or done at that place, Salter Quick was lifted on to an
improvised stretcher which the servants had brought down from the
Court and carried by the way we had come to an outhouse in the
gardens, where the police-surgeon proceeded to make a more careful
examination of his body. He was presently joined in this by the
medical man of whom Mr. Raven had spoken--a Dr. Lorrimore, who came
hurrying up in his motor-car, and at once took a hand in his
fellow-practitioner's investigations. But there was little to
investigate--just as I had thought from the first. Quick had been
murdered by a knife-thrust from behind--dealt with evident knowledge
of the right place to strike, said the two doctors, for his heart had
been transfixed, and death must have been instantaneous.

Mr. Raven shrank away from these gruesome details, but Mr. Cazalette
showed the keenest interest in them, and would not be kept from the
doctor's elbows. He was pertinacious in questioning them.

"And what sort of a weapon was it, d'ye suppose that the assassin
used?" he asked. "That'll be an important thing to know, I'm
thinking."

"It might have been a seaman's knife," said the police-surgeon. "One
of those with a long, sharp blade."

"Or," said Dr. Lorrimore, "a stiletto--such as foreigners carry."

"Aye," remarked Mr. Cazalette, "or with an operating knife--such as
you medicos use. Any one of those fearsome things would serve, no
doubt. But we'll be doing more good, Middlebrook, just to know what
the police are finding in the man's pockets."

The police-inspector had got all Quick's belongings in a little heap.
They were considerable. Over thirty pounds in gold and silver. Twenty
pounds in notes in an old pocket-book. His watch--certainly a valuable
one. A pipe, a silver match-box, a tobacco-box of some metal, quaintly
chased and ornamented. Various other small matters--but, with one
exception, no papers or letters. The one exception was a slightly
torn, dirty envelope addressed in an ill-formed handwriting to Mr.
Salter Quick, care of Mr. No