Once more the Captain nodded, and moved over to the open window.
Without touching it, he began carefully to look over the straight-backed chair, at the polished hard-wood floor about it, and at the narrow section of panelled wall behind—one of the room's wall spaces uncovered by books. Presently a barely audible exclamation escaped him—a mere breath of satisfaction, which, nevertheless, instantly brought McCaleb to his side.
"What is it?" the young man asked, breathlessly.
The Captain pointed to a small round hole in the oak panel, somewhat lower than his own shoulder as he stood, from which protruded what appeared to be half an inch of black yarn.
"You'll have to keep yourself better in hand, Mac," was his only verbal recognition of the young man's curiosity, while he extracted the particle of fabric from the tiny aperture.
"Ah, I see," McCaleb continued; "General Westbrook nearly winged him, didn't he? The man must have been standing right up against the wall to have the bullet carry away a piece of his coat like that."
Again Converse looked at the young man appreciatively.
"We'll make a detective of you yet," said he. "But the man wasn't standing so close to the wall, though. And why 'a man'? It is simply one of those rare chances where the thread of cloth clung to the bullet a bit longer than usual. If you'll notice the floor closely, you'll see—from this chair, where he sat for some time, to the desk; from the desk to the window there, and away. What that person took with"—the briefest of pauses before the pronoun—"him I'd give a good deal to have.... Those are about the actions of the General's caller. Do you notice anything peculiar about the footmarks on the floor?"
The Captain's manner was quiet and deliberate; and McCaleb, the pupil, followed the vague markings with the intentness and thoroughness of a born specialist. Slight as they were, the imprints would have been lacking entirely had it not been for the dampness of the night; but they held a meaning.
"The man came on to the desk," McCaleb began, but paused. "I suppose it was a man?" he asked.