"If it was that sort of gun, there must have been a shot-pouch and powder-flask. Where were they?"
"In the drawer where Jim keeps them."
"Everything looked, then, as if no shot had been fired?"
"Yes."
"Was there any one besides yourself and your son in the house?"
"No."
"Your housekeeper?"
"She had stepped out."
"To the best of your knowledge, then, there was no one about to fire the shot except your son?"