“Humph!” he said at last.
“Now look here, doctor,” said Poole, turning to the surgeon, “how soon after he was struck would you expect a man in that condition to fall—struck as Sir Garth was, that is, on the danger spot?”
“At once.”
“But he might have walked a certain distance after being hit?”
“A few steps perhaps—half a dozen.”
“But surely you don’t exclude the possibility of his having walked further—from the Duke of York’s Steps to the place where he fell?”
“I don’t know where he fell. I always assumed that it was a few paces beyond the Steps—you never told me anything to make me assume anything else. How far away did he fall?”
“Thirty or forty yards.”
“Good Lord, impossible! At least—wait a minute. If the injury to the aneurism was only slight—a very slight tear or puncture, so that the blood only oozed out, then he might have walked the distance you say before collapsing. If it burst on impact, he must have fallen within half a dozen paces.”
“You can’t say which kind of injury it was?”