“It is very rough, of course, and it only deals with the pointswhich seem to me to be essential. All the rest you will see laterfor yourself. Now, first of all, presuming that the assassin enteredthe house, how did he or she come in? Undoubtedly by the gardenpath and the back door, from which there is direct access to thestudy. Any other way would have been exceedingly complicated.
The escape must have also been made along that line, for of thetwo other exits from the room one was blocked by Susan as sheran downstairs and the other leads straight to the professor’sbedroom. I therefore directed my attention at once to the gardenpath, which was saturated with recent rain, and would certainlyshow any footmarks.
“My examination showed me that I was dealing with a cautiousand expert criminal. No footmarks were to be found on the path.
There could be no question, however, that someone had passedalong the grass border which lines the path, and that he had doneso in order to avoid leaving a track. I could not find anything inthe nature of a distinct impression, but the grass was troddendown, and someone had undoubtedly passed. It could only havebeen the murderer, since neither the gardener nor anyone else hadbeen there that morning, and the rain had only begun during thenight.”
“One moment,” said Holmes. “Where does this path lead to?”
“To the road.”
“How long is it?”
“A hundred yards or so.”
“At the point where the path passes through the gate, you couldsurely pick up the tracks?”
“Unfortunately, the path was tiled at that point.”
“Well, on the road itself?”
“No, it was all trodden into mire.”
“Tut-tut! Well, then, these tracks upon the grass, were theycoming or going?”
“It was impossible to say. There was never any outline.”
“A large foot or a small?”
“You could not distinguish.”
Holmes gave an ejaculation of impatience.
“It has been pouring rain and blowing a hurricane ever since,”
said he. “It will be harder to read now than that palimpsest. Well,well, it can’t be helped. What did you do, Hopkins, after you hadmade certain that you had made certain of nothing?”
“I think I made certain of a good deal, Mr. Holmes. I knewthat someone had entered the house cautiously from without. Inext examined the corridor. It is lined with cocoanut matting andhad taken no impression of any kind. This brought me into thestudy itself. It is a scantily
furnished room. The main
article is a large writingtable
with a fixed bureau.
This bureau consists of a
double column of drawers,
with a central small cupboard
between them. The drawers were
open, the cupboard locked. The
drawers, it seems, were always open, and nothing of value was keptin them. There were some papers of importance in the cupboard,but there were no signs that this had been tampered with, and theprofessor assures me that nothing was missing. It is certain thatno robbery has been committed.
“I come now to the body of the young man. It was found nearthe bureau, and just to the left of it, as marked upon that chart.
The stab was on the right side of the neck and from behindforward, so that it is almost impossible that it could have beenself-inflicted.”
“Unless he fell upon the knife,” said Holmes.
“Exactly. The idea crossed my mind. But we found the knifesome feet away from the body, so that seems impossible. Then,of course, there are the man’s own dying words. And, finally,there was this very important piece of evidence which was foundclasped in the dead man’s right hand.”
From his pocket Stanley Hopkins drew a small paper packet.
He unfolded it and disclosed a golden pince-nez, with two brokenends of black silk cord dangling from the end of it. “WilloughbySmith had excellent sight,” he added. “There can be no questionthat this was snatched from the face or the person of the assassin.”
Sherlock Holmes took the glasses into his hand, and examinedthem with the utmost attention and interest. He held them on hisnose, endeavoured to read through them, went to the window andstared up the street with them, looked at them most minutely inthe full light of the lamp, and finally, with a chuckle, seated himselfat the table and wrote a few lines upon a sheet of paper, which hetossed across to Stanley Hopkins.
“That’s the best I can do for you,” said he. “It may prove to beof some use.”
The astonished detective read the note aloud. It ran as follows:
“Wanted, a woman of good address, attired like a lady. She has aremarkably thick nose, with eyes which are set close upon eitherside of it. She has a puckered forehead, a peering expression, andprobably rounded shoulders. There are indications that she has hadrecourse to an optician at least twice during the last few months. Asher glasses are of remarkable strength, and as opticians are not verynumerous, there should be no difficulty in tracing her.”