Bisset looked distinctly disappointed.
"I've heard, sir, one or two stories which I was hoping might have something in them."
"I've heard about half a dozen and gone into them all, and there's nothing in one of them."
"Half a dozen stories?" Bisset's eye began to look hopeful again. "Well, sir, perhaps if I was to go into some of them again in the light of my fresh datas, they might wear, as it were, a different aspect."
"Well," said Ned. "What have you found? Have a cigar and let's hear what you've been at."
The expert crackled the cigar approvingly between his fingers, lit it with increased approval, and began:
"Yon man was behind the curtains all the time."
"The devil he was! How do you know?"
"Well, sir, it's a matter of deduction. Ye see supposing he came in by the door, there are objections, and supposing he came in by the windie there are objections. Either way there are objections which make it difficult for to accept those theories. And then it struck me—the man must have been behind the curtains all the while!"