`I think you told me you were in your pantry and heard the shot. You ran up here immediately, and found him just as he is. Did anybody else hear it?'
`Mrs Bitton, sir. She came in a moment later.'
'Where is Mrs Bitton's room?'
Hobbes indicated a door near the fireplace `A dressing room, sir, which communicates with her own room.'
What did Mrs Bitton do?'
`She- stood looking at him for a long time, and suggested that I wake Sir William. Then she returned to her room.'
Hadley went over to the writing-table, looked at the chair beside it, and turned. `Mr Bitton was out this evening. He must have returned here about eleven o'clock. Did you see him?'
`Yes, sir. He returned just before eleven, and went directly to the library. He asked me to bring him a cup of cocoa, and when I brought it he was sitting in front of the library fire. When I passed by, the door of the library, about an hour later, I went in and asked him if he wished anything more., He was still sitting in the same chair. When I spoke he said, "No, nothing more." Then he rose and walked past me and up the stairs..: For the first time Hobbes faltered, a trifle the man's self-control was amazing. `That was the last I saw of him, sir, before.. before this.’
`How long afterwards did you hear the shot?'
`I am not positive, sir. Not more than five minutes, I should say, and probably less.'