"Wide open, the front window was. The one on the west side the General never had open, it being right opposite the door, and him not liking a draught. It was the butler shut the windows after the crime was discovered, which, properly speaking, he shouldn't have done."
"No footmarks outside?"
"No, but that doesn't mean anything either, when you come to think of it. There hasn't been any rain since I don't know when, and the ground's as hard as a rock. "It isn't as though there was a flower-bed by the window either. Well, naturally, there wouldn't be, because it's one of them French windows, as you can see for yourself. There's just a bit of grass, and then the drive, which is gravel. Whoever it was that murdered the General might have come in through the window without leaving any trace, or, on the other hand, he might have come in by the door, and no one the wiser."
"That makes it rather difficult," said the Inspector. "Is it known whether the General had any enemies?" He looked up from the photographs as he spoke, and saw that both men's faces had relaxed into broad grins. His own rather grave grey eyes smiled faintly. "Oh! Have I said something funny?"
"Well, Inspector Harding, you've pretty well hit the nail on the head, that's what you've done," said the Superintendent. "I don't suppose, if you was to search the whole county, you'd find anyone who'd got more enemies than what Sir Arthur had. I don't mind going so far as to say that if you set out to find somebody who'd got a good word to say for him you'd have a job."
"That's a fact," corroborated the Sergeant, in a slow deep voice. "You'd have a job."
It was at this moment that the Chief Constable walked into the room.
"Ah, Superintendent, I see the Inspector has — er arrived. No doubt you have put him in — er — possession of the facts. Inspector Harding, isn't it? Very glad you have got down here, Inspector."
The Inspector had risen, and turned to face the newcomer. Major Grierson, who had held out his hand looked at him extremely sharply, and said: "Dear me surely we have — er — met before? Your face is very — er — familiar, yet for the moment I cannot exactly call to er — mind where we have met Do you, by any chance — remember meeting me?"
"Yes, sir, I remember you perfectly," answered the Inspector, shaking hands. "We met in Bailleul."