"They are all suppositions," said Morgan coolly.
Hugh peered at him. "Good God, man, I know they are! They're your suppositions. What happens to them now?"
"Put it this way. Depping, in disguise, was locked out. He was locked out for an obvious reason which doesn't seem to have occurred to anybody: that the accomplice really couldn't find the key. Depping had sneaked out the front door of the house intending to return by the balcony. But he had forgotten the key— left it behind in his other clothes, and it couldn't be found. Meantime, Depping can't wait in the rain. He conceives the idea that he can get in through the front door, if the other person will blow out the fuses…"
"How?" demanded Hugh. "I thought we'd agreed about the buttonhook. Nobody with bare hands would have tried blowing the fuses like that."
"Certainly not. But it could have propped against that low socket, and pushed in to make a contact…"
"With what?"
"With the sole of a tennis shoe," said Morgan, and struck another match. "We mustn't be too sure of those rubber gloves, you know. And thus we destroy the only basis for believing that the accomplice intended to kill Depping… with the sole of any ordinary tennis shoe."
Donovan searched his mind for a suitable observation, and eyed his host with malevolence. "Nuts!" he said violently, after some consideration. "Nuts!"
Patricia let out a protesting gurgle.
"I say, Hank, it won't do!" she insisted. "I thought you said that, after Mr. Depping was shot, the murderer got out the balcony door, and the door was left open… If that's so, and the murderer really couldn't find the key, how did he get out that way?"