arrived, a brusque and dapper little man, hastily fetched in from the terrace. Gardiner, who was everywhere at once, arranging everything, cleared the room for him to make his examination, leaving only Denis, Miss Marvin, and himself.
"Fracture of the base of the skull. No, I couldn't have done anything even if I'd been on the spot; must have been practically instantaneous. Slipped, you say, did he? H'm!" He bent to sniff at the dead man's lips. "Where was he standing?"
Gardiner reconstructed the scene, exact in every detail save one. "He came across to the table, to fill his glass, I suppose, and seemed to lose his balance--his feet flew up in the air. We didn't think anything of it, did we, Denis? It was the most ordinary tumble."
"Didn't strike against anything in falling, did he?"
"No; he went flat on his back, as you do on a slide."
"Sure? Well, how do you account for that, then?"
He pointed to a tiny star of blood on the dead man's forehead. Gardiner looked as he felt, nonplussed.
"I can't account for it."
"You can't, hey? Your friend, then--he any idea?"
"No," said Denis from the window, without turning round. There was an uncomfortable pause.
"What's all this mess of glass about?" asked Miss Marvin, who was listening with all her intelligent ears.
"I don't know--yes, I do, though; Major Trent had been having a whisky and soda, and dropped the tumbler as he fell. I remember hearing it smash."
"There you are, then, sir. A bit flew up and hit him. There's nothing cuts worse than broken glass, and the splinters they'll fly anywhere, they're that light and frivolous things. Why, I've nearly had my own eye out, falling up the pantry steps with a tray in my arms! That's what done it, you may depend."
Thus Miss Marvin, practical and positive. Little Dr. Scott nodded assent.
"H'm, yes; might have been that. The fellow was half tipsy, of course. No need to tell his wife so, but he smells like a pot-house. She seems to take it pretty queerly, by the way, from the glimpse I had of her," he added, bending his bright and piercing eyes on Gardiner. "Has a special grudge against you, hey?"
"She accused me downright of murdering him at first," said the young man soberly. "Heaven knows why, for I'd never set eyes on either of them before. I hope she won't keep it up; it's rather a serious thing to have laid to one's charge. But I suppose I'd better take no notice; women in her state of health often take queer fancies into their heads, don't they?"
"Hey? Is that so? Poor child, poor child! I hope we shan't have any further trouble with her. It's a bad piece of work altogether," he added, getting up and dusting his knees. "You know, of course, that the body mustn't be moved till the police have seen it. You've sent for them, I suppose?"
"No, I haven't."

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