“Yes—though not all the details as you related them.”
The Archduke smiled; there were very few details missed when Courtney started an investigation.
“Your argument, Richard,” he said, “is based upon the hypothesis that Adolph is the thief, which appears most probable; yet did your examination suggest no other solution?”
“Absolutely none—and, more peculiar still, I was unable to find the slightest trace of the valet outside the Palace, between the time he left the Council and the discovery of his dead body behind the hedge—though you and Her Highness saw him in the library after the Council adjourned.”
“And that is the last time I ever saw him,” said Dehra.
“And more than that,” Armand added, “it’s the last time any one saw him in the Palace; I had that matter looked into yesterday. The Council rose about noon and afterward not a servant nor soldier so much as laid eyes on him.”
“Isn’t there something particularly significant in the place where Adolph was found?” the Princess asked. “Mightn’t he have been killed in the library and then, from the window, the body dropped behind the hedge?”
Courtney’s hand went to his imperial reflectively.
“A very reasonable and a very likely explanation,” he said; “and the nature of the wound supports it; it was a noiseless assassination;—but, again, that eliminates the Some-one.”
“Very true,” said the Archduke; “he left the Council before it adjourned, to return at once to town.”