“The faults before us are the continuous chance blunders of an unimaginable fool, if we view them as the faults committed by Sir Anthony Gyde. Sir Anthony Gyde could not have committed them, we may say could not, for they are too many to have been committed by a man with any reason in his head, even though in criminal matters he is a fool.
“Well, then, we are driven upon the only other supposition; that Gyde had nothing to do with the murder, and that these seeming faults are really not faults, or in other words, they are faults committed purposely by some keen intelligence to bring confusion into the case. I think what I have said is almost mathematically demonstrable.
“I do not like to say any more, except this, that in my firm belief Sir Anthony Gyde is innocent.”
There was a murmur from the other men present, a murmur of admiration for the logical reasoning of the little German.
“Well,” said the chief, “your argument is clever. We must admit that, if Gyde is the murderer, then Gyde has committed more faults in the business than it is at all probable he would commit. If Gyde is not the murderer, then, some other man is; if that is so, I am bound to admit that this other man has not only successfully fouled his traces but has cast, in some extraordinary manner, the onus of the affair upon Gyde. The proof of that is,” he continued, with a short laugh, “he has made us issue a warrant for Gyde’s arrest. Have you anything more to say, Freyberger? What you have said already has been to the point.”
“Only this, sir. Dr Murrell is preparing the retina of the valet, Leloir. He intends photographing it by Mendel’s process. He may, or may not, succeed; the thing fails as a rule, or only gives the faintest blur of a picture. But it seems that the rods and cones of the retina take a far more powerful impression in a case like this, if the subject has caught his last glimpse of earthly things by the electric light. It is just possible that the retina of Leloir may give us a picture of what he saw before he died.”
“The only two successful cases of the kind I have heard of,” said the chief, “occurred in Germany.”
“That is true, sir,” replied Freyberger. “The case of Ludwig Baumer, recounted by Casper; and the case of the courtesan, Gretchen Dreschfeld, which Addeler, the professor of forensic medicine at Bonn, made such a success of.”
“When did Dr Murrell say his results would be known?” asked the chief.
“He did not say, sir; but, with your permission, I will call upon him now and see what hopes he can give us of a successful photograph.”