“You think it adds to the mystery?”
“For the present it does. But it may prove to be a key which will open many closed doors in this investigation.”
“Your mention of closed doors suggests another question,” said Marsland. “Why did this man get out of the window and walk backwards? If he wanted to leave misleading clues it would have been just as easy for him to go out by the front door, walk up to the window from the path so as to leave footprints and then force the window from the outside.”
“Just as easy,” assented Crewe. “But it would have taken longer, because it is more difficult to force the catch of a window from the outside than the inside. I think that we must assume that he was pressed for time.”
“But I understand that this man Lumsden lived alone. In that case there would be little danger of interruption.”
“A man who has just committed a murder gets into a state of nervous alarm,” was Crewe’s reply. “He is naturally anxious to get away from the scene of the crime.”
“But if this man knew the place well he must have known that Lumsden lived alone, and that the discovery of the crime would not take place immediately. But for the accident of my taking shelter there the body might have remained undiscovered for days.”
“Quite true. But that does not affect my point that a murderer is always in a hurry to get away.”
“Isn’t the fact that he went to the trouble of washing out blood-stains on the stairs evidence that he was not in a hurry?”
“No,” said Crewe emphatically. “I should be more inclined to accept it as evidence that he expected some one to call at the farm—that either he or Lumsden had an appointment with some one there.”