the window?"

he had turned suddenly, and his long, thin finger was

pointing to a hole which had been drilled right through the

lower window-sash about an inch above the bottom.

"by george!" cried the inspector. "how ever did you see

that?"

"because i looked for it."

"wonderful!" said the country doctor. "you are certainly

right, sir. then a third shot has been fired, and

therefore a third person must have been present. but who

could that have been and how could he have got away?"

"that is the problem which we are now about to solve," said

sherlock holmes. "you remember, inspector martin, when the

servants said that on leaving their room they were at once

conscious of a smell of powder i remarked that the point

was an extremely important one?"

"yes, sir; but i confess i did not quite follow you."

"it suggested that at the time of the firing the window as

well as the door of the room had been open. otherwise the

fumes of powder could not have been blown so rapidly

through the house. a draught in the room was necessary for

that. both door and window were only open for a very short

time, however."

"how do you prove that?"

"because the candle has not guttered."

"capital!" cried the inspector. "capital!"

"feeling sure that the window had been open at the time of

the tragedy i conceived that there might have been a third

person in the affair, who stood outside this opening and

fired through it. any shot directed at this person might

hit the sash. i looked, and there, sure enough, was the

bullet mark!"

"but how came the window to be shut and fastened?"

"the woman's first instinct would be to shut and fasten the

window. but, halloa! what is this?"

it was a lady's hand-bag which stood upon the study table --

a trim little hand-bag of crocodile-skin and silver.

holmes opened it and turned the contents out. there were

twenty fifty-pound notes of the bank of england, held

together by an india-rubber band -- nothing else.

"this must be preserved, for it will figure in the trial,"

said holmes, as he handed the bag with its contents to the

inspector. "it is now necessary that we should try to

throw some light upon this third bullet, which has clearly,

from the splintering of the wood, been fired from inside

the room. i should like to see mrs. king, the cook, again.

you said, mrs. king, that you were awakened by a _loud_

explosion. when you said that, did you mean that it seemed

to you to be louder than the second one?"

"well, sir, it wakened me from my sleep, and so it is hard

to judge. but it did seem very loud."

"you don't think that it might have been two shots fired

almost at the same instant?"

"i am sure i couldn't say, sir."

"i believe that it was undoubtedly so. i rather think,

inspector martin, that we have now exhausted all that this

room can teach us. if you will kindly step round with me,

we shall see what fresh evidence the garden has to offer."

a flower-bed extended up to the study window, and we all

broke into an exclamation as we approached it. the flowers

were trampled down, and the soft soil was imprinted all

over with footmarks. large, masculine feet they were, with

peculiarly long, sharp toes. holmes hunted about among the

grass and leaves like a retriever after a wounded bird.

then, with a cry of satisfaction, he bent forward and

picked up a little brazen cylinder.

"i thought so," said he; "the revolver had an ejector, and

here is the third cartridge. i really think, inspector

martin, that our case is almost complete."

the country inspector's face had shown his intense

amazement at the rapid and masterful progress of holmes's

investigation. at first he had shown some disposition to

assert his own position; but now he was overcome with

admiration and ready to follow without question wherever

holmes led.

"whom do you suspect?" he asked.

"i'll go into that later. there are several points in this

problem which i have not been able to explain to you yet.

now that i have got so far i had best proceed on my own

lines, and then clear the whole matter up once and for

all."

"just as you wish, mr. holmes, so long as we get our man."

"i have no desire to make mysteries, but it is impossible

at the moment of action to enter into long and complex

explanations. i have the threads of this affair all in my

hand. even if this lady should never recover consciousness

we can still reconstruct the events of last night and

ensure that justice be done. first of all i wish to know

whether there is any inn in this neighbourhood known as

'elrige's'?"

the servants were cross-questioned, but none of them had

heard of such a place. the stable-boy threw a light upon

the matter by remembering that a farmer of that name lived

some miles off in the direction of east ruston.

"is it a lonely far