“That’s an idea. I never considered that. Outside! That’s certainly a possibility.”
“One more point,” I said, secretly pleased to have set him thinking, “and that may be two ... apparently nothing else has been stolen besides Lady Considine’s necklace ... that is to say nothing in the jewel line.... How comes the Venetian dagger to be in the billiard room?” Anthony looked grave.
“That’s a poser,” he commented. “But it must not be forgotten that we are dealing with two adventures ... ‘The Adventure of Lady Considine’s Necklace’ and ‘The Adventure of the Death in the Billiard Room’ ... there may be no connection whatever between the two ... and yet, as you have suggested, Bill, there may.”
“The Venetian dagger was always kept in the drawing-room,” I maintained. “Therefore, the person that took it, went to the drawing-room to get it.”
“True ... but when? That’s the point. Also, Bill, why was the dagger used when Prescott was already dead—strangled?”
“Perhaps the murderer didn’t know he was dead. Now I’m coming to that second point at which I hinted just now ... something I fail to understand at all. How do you account for the absence of blood stains? As far as I could see, Prescott lay on the billiard-table on his shoulder, there was no blood on the table, though, and his clothing seemed to show very little trace.... I should have imagined, though I don’t pretend to know, that a blow struck with the force that that had been would have caused a rush of blood from the wound.”
Anthony nodded. “Good for you—the same feature struck me—but Dr. Elliot had an explanation. He says that a blow struck at the top of the spinal cord as this blow was, produced, in a living body, almost an instantaneous paralysis, and that he would expect, as a medical man, a very small quantity of blood to be shed. This was a dead body when the blow was struck, remember! But why the dagger was ever used ... well, I’m in considerable doubt.”
“And I,” I rejoined. “And I can’t see much hope of our doubts being dispelled.”
Anthony looked at his wrist watch.
“We’ve got time to go home through the village,” he said. “I want to make a call.”