“Listen,” impatiently cut in Bobsy. “There are six ways of getting in and out. Now nobody could have entered at the hall door where you were, Blake?”
“Oh, no, sir. I was there all the evening, and the hall lighted as bright as day.”
“All right. That’s one off. Now we’ll go round the room. The North window is out of the question, eh?”
“Yes, sir,” said Blake, as the query was to him. “It only opens in those high, upper sections, by cords, don’t you see?”
Blake showed the contrivance that opened and shut the upper panes, and it was clear to be seen that there was no possibility of entrance that way.
“Next is the West window,” Bobsy went on, “and that’s settled by a glance. Why, look at the chalk dust on the floor. How could any one walk through that and leave no track?”
This was unanswerable, so they went on to the door to the Billiard Room.
“This is where Mrs. Stannard came in. No other person could have entered this door unless she had seen him. Now, we come to the East window. This was open, I am told, but the wire fly-screen makes it safe. Also, Mr. Courtenay sat on a lawn bench, looking this way, when the light went out. Had a person climbed in at this window before that he must have seen him.”
“He couldn’t climb in, sir, ’count of the screen,” said Blake. “It’s not a movable screen. We put them up for the season, and take them down the middle of October. They all come down next week.”
“This door, the last,” and Bobsy paused at the door to the Terrace, “is the one at which Miss Vernon entered. If any one else had come in here she would have seen him. That completes our circuit. No one could have gained access to this room except the ones under consideration. Now we are faced by the fact that one of those two women committed the murder, and it’s up to us to decide which one.”