He waved his guests to chairs after he had performed the introductions, and produced a cigar-case. `What have you got now?'
The chief warder shook his head. He pushed out the chair in which he had been sitting for General Mason.
`Not much, I'm afraid, sir. I've just questioned the guards from the White Tower, and the head workman from the repair shop. Mr Dalrye has the notes in shorthand.'
The young man shuffled some papers and blinked at General Mason. He had a long, rather doleful face, but a humorous mouth. His good-humoured, rather near-sighted grey eyes were bitter; he fumbled with a pair of pince-nez on a chain, then stared down at his papers.
`Good afternoon, sir,' he, said to Sir William. 'They told me you were here. I… — I can't say anything, can I? You know how I feel.'
Then, still staring at his papers, he changed the subject with a rush. `I have the notes here, sir,' he told General Mason. `Nothing has, been stolen from the armoury, of course. And the head workman at the shop, as well as both warders from the second floor of the White Tower, are willing to swear that crossbow bolt is not in the collection and never has been in any collection here!’
'Why? You can't possibly identify a thing like that, can you?'
`John Brownlow got rather technical about it. And he's by way of being an authority, sir. It's here. He says' — Dalrye adjusted his pince-nez and blinked `he says it's a much earlier type of bolt than any we have here. That is, judging from what he can see of it… in the body. Late fourteenth-century pattern. Ah, here we are. "The later ones are much shorter and thicker, and with a broader barb at the head. That one's so thin it wouldn't fit smoothly in the groove of any crossbow in the lot."
General Mason turned to Hadley, who was carefully removing his overcoat. `You're in charge now. So ask any questions you like. Give that chair to the chief inspector..;. But I think that proves it wasn't fired, unless you believe the murderer brought his own bow.' Then it couldn't have been shot from one of the crossbows here, Dalrye?'
Brownlow says it could have been, but that there would be a hundred-to-one chance of the bolt going wild.'