“I don’t think I can, sir. I was too busy to notice their faces or their clothes during the short time I was with them.”
“Can you say whether one of them was tall and slender, with very black hair, turning gray in places?” asked Ned, fixing his eyes on those of the servant.
Pedro looked back at his questioner for an instant, and then his gaze fell to the floor.
“I can’t say,” he replied, slowly, while the others, amazed at the character of the question, turned to Ned for explanation.
“If the description I have given is recognized by you as that of one of the men you met in the corridor,” Ned went on, “can you tell me whether his clothing was wet or dry?”
There was dead silence in the room. There had been nothing thus far in the case leading up to this description, and those present looked at Ned with wonder in their faces. To say the least, the questions seemed irrelevant.
Pedro stood for a moment touching his dry lips with the tip of his tongue, his fingers clasping and unclasping, then his shoulders straightened into firmer lines and he faced his questioner with a smile of complacency.
“I don’t know what you mean,” he said.
“Perhaps I should have said damp clothing,” Ned replied. “The man I have in mind—the man who might have been one of your assailants—entered the house just after the rainstorm, which came on close after six o’clock. His clothing was soaking wet when he came in, but would not remain so for four hours.”
Pedro grasped the back of a chair which stood near him and looked out of the window to the lighted street in front of the house. While he stood silent Mr. Shaw arose to a sitting position on the couch and asked: