“Certainly. That’s a simple problem.”
Nick proceeded to fit the bandage, so to speak, to Fallon’s hands. It would not fit the right hand, though turned in either direction, without altering the original turns and wrinkles. It could be perfectly bound around the left hand, however, and the result of Nick’s experiment was convincing.
“This is as plain as twice two,” said he. “It was worn by some man on his left hand.”
“Surely,” Fallon agreed. “He probably had a sore hand, or a cut.”
“You are wrong,” said Nick. “That’s the curious part of it.”
“Wrong?” questioned Fallon, puzzled. “Why so?”
Nick still had the bandage twined around his companion’s left hand.
“Notice these bloodstains,” he replied. “They are not on the inside of the bandage, which would come next to a cut, or sore. They are on the outside of it.”
“By Jove, that is a bit strange,” Fallon now declared.
“The blood did not soak from a wound, moreover, for the layer of cloth beneath this outside one is perfectly clean, as you see.”