"You smashed the locked door to the underground passage. Oh, ah! You had a pocket-lighter? Oh, ah! Was there a key in this lock on the other side?"
"No."
"Though you'd been told no doors were locked at the prison except the main gates?"
"It was the only locked door." Stannard, his black eyebrows raised, leaned forward and again seemed to throw back the words through half-closed teeth. "The hinges of the front gates were oiled, though I didn't oil them. The lock and hinges of that door were oiled, though I didn't oil them. Are your wits beginning to wake up?"
"Maybe, sir! Maybe! Were there blood-spots in that underground passage?"
Ruth tried to, and only just succeeded in, stifling a gasp.
"Yes," Stannard said briefly. "I didn't tread in them."
"And blood-spots in the other passage? Where it turned left, I mean?"
"Yes."
"And blood-spots on the stairs up to the mortuary?" "A few."