"At Miss Trevor's request?" "At Miss Trevor's request. That brings us up again to my arrival on the scene, and my first hasty impressions. "As I have said, Mr. Graeme lay face downward alongside the desk, just hidden by the[Pg 63] screen from the gaze of anyone entering the room from the hall. Since the head was turned slightly to the right, the wound was not visible unless one knelt, as I did, directly beside the body. [Pg 63] "Now a wound of this nature could have been received in two easily understandable ways. Either Mr. Graeme, overcome with vertigo, had fallen and hit his head against some sharp corner, or he had been attacked and struck down by a weapon in the hands of some unknown assailant. "Hypothesis No. 1, or the accident theory. I can state positively that Francis Graeme was not in the least subject to vertigo or fainting spells, and there was nothing to indicate an ordinary trip-up and fall. There is no rug at this point, the floor while smooth is not noticeably slippery, and Graeme was dressed for golf, wearing rubber-soled shoes which must have given him a particularly firm footing. Finally, there was no apparent sharp corner on which his head could have struck. From the position of the body it was clear that he had fallen entirely clear of the writing-desk." "That seems to dispose of the accident theory." "Seems to—yes. But it's still a possibility[Pg 64] that he might have fallen and struck on something calculated to inflict an injury of this nature, a something which was afterward removed." [Pg 64] "By whom?" "Who knows? There was time enough for many things to happen between my departure from the house and the discovery of the body. In the meantime no one, supposedly, saw him. So nearly as I can determine, he died a little after twelve o'clock, but the door was not opened until two. A person who knew the house well could have secured the master-key, entered the room, and left it again with little danger of detection." "It's an impertinent observation, Doctor Marcy, but you say that no one saw Mr. Graeme alive after your departure from the library at ten o'clock?" "Oh, I have my alibi straight enough,"
Prev.
Back
Top