Whiteside gasped.
"And you mean to tell me," he demanded, "that Thornton Lyne was killed with your pistol?"
Tarling nodded.
"It is an amazing but bewildering fact," he said. "That is undoubtedly my pistol, and it is the same that was found in Miss Rider's room at Carrymore Mansions, and I have not the slightest doubt in my mind that it was by a shot fired from this weapon that Thornton Lyne lost his life."
There was a long silence.
"Well, that beats me," said Whiteside, laying the weapon on the table. "At every turn some new mystery arises. This is the second jar I've had to-day."
"The second?" said Tarling. He put the question idly, for his mind was absorbed in this new and to him tremendous aspect of the crime. Thornton Lyne had been killed by his pistol! That to him was the most staggering circumstance which had been revealed since he had come into the case.
"Yes," Whiteside was saying, "it's the second setback."
With an effort Tarling brought his mind back from speculating upon the new mystery.
"Do you remember this?" said Whiteside. He opened his safe and took out a big envelope, from which he extracted a telegram.