“How the devil did it come there?” I exclaimed.
He thought for a second or two before replying. “Well, taking all the circumstances into consideration, not such an unlikely place, after all, to find it. Prescott’s body lay across this table, near this particular pocket, and it’s quite conceivable that (1) the I.O.U. fell in some manner from his coat pocket into the billiard-table pocket or (2) the I.O.U. was taken from the body by the murderer, and dropped, either in the struggle or afterwards. The murderer might even have searched the room for it—assuming that he wanted it badly—and never imagined that it had fallen where it had.”
“Yes,” I assented. “I follow you. How was it”—I went on—“that you didn’t notice it when you took the balls out just now?”
“There were three balls in this pocket then. I knocked them out from outside the pocket—when I plunged my hand in to get out the red ball, I felt this piece of envelope.”
“I see.”
“And there’s something more that I can contribute, Bill!” He wrinkled his forehead as was his habit when endeavoring to remember something very accurately or in extreme detail. “When we were called to this room at seven o’clock that morning by Marshall, the three balls were in the pocket then. I can recall them distinctly—Prescott’s body was lying across the bottom of the table. He was partly on his right shoulder, and his right arm was hanging over the side—very near the pocket where I’ve found the I.O.U. I can remember looking at the limp arm hanging there—and then looking into the pocket and seeing the balls. I can——” he stopped suddenly. “But there’s something wrong somewhere, there’s a difference—there’s a——” he thrust his hands into his pockets and paced the room. When he turned in my direction again, I could see that his eyes were closed. He was thinking hard. “It will come back to me,” he muttered. “There was the arm—there were the three balls—there was the dagger——” he snapped his fingers. Then he swung around.
“Got it?” I asked curiously.
“Got what?”
“Whatever was eluding you?”
He smiled. “I think so,” he answered, “anyway the three balls were there—it was impossible to see the piece of envelope even if we had thought of looking there. But, I must confess, it didn’t occur to me. And evidently also, it didn’t occur to the worthy Baddeley.”