The inspector went to the tall corner-cupboard and opened it. He took out a decanter of cut glass, and set it on the table before Martin. "Was it fuller than that?" he asked quietly. "That's how I found it this morning." The decanter was more than half empty.
For the first time Martin's self-possession wavered. He took up the decanter quickly, tilted it before his eyes, and then stared amazedly at the others. He said slowly: "There's not much short of half a bottle gone out of this since I last set eyes on it—and that was Sunday night."
"Nobody in the house, I suppose—" suggested Trent discreetly.
"Out of the question," replied Martin briefly. Then he added: "I beg pardon, sir, but this is a most extraordinary thing to me. Such a thing never happened in all my experience of Mr. Manderson. As for the women-servants, they never touch anything. I can answer for it; and as for me, when I want a drink I can help myself without going to the decanters." He took up the decanter again, and aimlessly renewed his observation of the contents, while the inspector eyed him with a look of serene satisfaction, as a master contemplates his handiwork.
Trent turned to a fresh page of his notebook, and tapped it thoughtfully with his pencil. Then he looked up and said: "I suppose Mr. Manderson had dressed for dinner that night."
"Certainly, sir. He had on a suit with a dress-jacket, what he used to refer to as a Tuxedo, which he usually wore when dining at home or informally."
"And he was dressed like that when you saw him last?"
"All but the jacket, sir. When he spent the evening in the library, as usually happened, he would change it for an old shooting-jacket after dinner, a light-colored tweed, a little too loud in pattern for English tastes, perhaps. He had it on when I saw him last. It used to hang in this cupboard here"—Martin opened the door of it as he spoke—"along with Mr. Manderson's fishing-rods and such things, so that he could slip it on after dinner without going upstairs."
"Leaving the dinner-jacket in the cupboard?"
"Yes, sir. The housemaid used to take it upstairs in the morning."