"Did you ever make up your mind about that Brudenell Court affair?" the Old Man in the Corner said to me that day.
"No," I replied. "As far as I am concerned the death of Colonel Forburg has remained a complete mystery."
"You don't think," he insisted, "that Morley Thrall was guilty?"
"Well," I said, "I don't know what to think."
"Then don't do it," he rejoined, with a chuckle, "if you don't know what to think, then it's best not to think at all. At any rate wait until I have told you exactly what did happen—not as it was reported in the newspapers, but in the sequence in which the various incidents occurred.
"On Christmas Eve, last year, while the family were at dinner, there was a sudden commotion and cries of 'Stop, thief!' issuing from the back premises of Brudenell Court, the country seat of a certain Colonel Forburg. The butler ran in excitedly to say that Julia Mason, one of the maids, was drawing down the blinds in one of the first-floor rooms, when she saw a man fiddling with the shutters of the French window in the smoking-room downstairs. She at once gave the alarm, whereupon the man bolted across the garden in the direction of the five-acre field. The Colonel and his stepson, as well as two male guests who were dining with them, immediately jumped up and hurried out to help in the chase. It was a very dark night, people were running to and fro, and for a few moments there was a great deal of noise and confusion, through which two pistol-shots in close succession were distinctly heard.
"The ladies—amongst whom was Miss Monica Glenluce, the Colonel's stepdaughter—had remained in the dining-room, and the dinner was kept waiting, pending the return of the gentlemen. They straggled in one by one, all except the Colonel. The ladies eagerly asked for news; the gentlemen could not say much—the night was very dark and they had just waited about outside until some of the indoor men who had given chase came back with the news that the thief had been caught.
"This news was confirmed by young Glenluce, Miss Monica's brother, who was the last to return. He had actually witnessed the capture. The thief had bolted straight across the five-acre meadow, but doubled back before he reached the stables, turned sharply to the right through the kitchen garden, and then jumped over the boundary wall of the grounds into the lane beyond, where he fell straight into the arms of the local constable who happened to be passing by.
"Young Glenluce had great fun out of the chase; he had guessed the man's purpose, and instead of running after him across the meadow, he had gone round it, and had reached the boundary wall only a few seconds after the thief had scaled it. There was some talk about the gunshots that had been heard, and every one supposed that Colonel Forburg, who was a violent-tempered man, had snatched up a revolver before giving chase to the burglar, and had taken a potshot at him; it was fortunate that he had missed him.
"The incident would then have been closed and the interrupted dinner proceeded with, but for the fact that the host had not yet returned. Nothing was thought of this at first, for it was generally supposed that the Colonel had been kept talking by one of his men, or perhaps by the constable who had effected the capture; it was only when close on half an hour had gone by that Miss Monica became impatient. She got the butler to telephone both to the stables and the lodge, but the Colonel had not been seen at either place, either during or after the incident with the burglar; communication with the police station brought the same result; nothing had been seen or heard of the Colonel.