"When Rich cried to Mrs. Fane, 'One — two — three— fire,' and nobody in here would have seen a herd of elephants, the lazy-tongs whisked out again. A touch released the dagger on the table. Any small noise it might have made was deadened by the rubber handle, and your own preoccupation. And there you are. To change the daggers, Masters and I found, takes about ten seconds."
He swung round to Sharpless.
"Now, son. Climb down. Shove the ladder in the shed, and hurry back in here.. Clock him as he does it."
The clicking little hand of the watch moved steadily, while nobody spoke.
Then Sharpless opened the door to the hall, and Courtney pressed the stem of the watch.
"Longer," he said. "Seventeen seconds."
''Thirteen plus ten plus seventeen," said H.M. dreamily. "Forty seconds. Less than a minute. But allow a little leeway for judgin', and studyin' on Hubert's part, and say one minute.
"Does that strike you as bein' very long? Do you wonder that Daisy was willing to swear Hubert only walked into the dining room and took a drink?
"So Hubert, as you remember, came back briskly just in time to open the door and see Arthur Fane stabbed to death in the chair."
H.M. grumpily folded up the lazy-tongs and replaced it in his breast pocket.