“He faced the window,” interposed Cardona, in a matter-of-fact tone. “He faced a shot through that grating.”
“Are you sure?” questioned Biscayne. “Come! Let us view that scene again. Let us reconstruct Harshaw’s death!”
The professor led the way to the study. He and Cardona stood beside the window. The detective, going back to his theory of death from without, crouched in front of the window sill.
He reached out and clutched the radiator. He drew himself upward.
Biscayne took Cardona’s place when the detective stepped aside. But as Biscayne duplicated Cardona’s action, he stopped suddenly and pressed his hand against the radiator.
“This radiator is cold,” he said. “That is strange. The one in the other room was sizzling.”
He turned the knob of the radiator and waited a few moments. There was no sound of entering steam.
Cardona stooped to the floor, and noted the radiator pipe. His examination was a close one.
“This isn’t connected,” the detective said. “It must have been out of order for a long time.
“There you are” — he pointed to the other end of the room — “there’s the gas heater the old man used. That’s why he had it — a bum radiator in this room.”