"Sir Robert, could it possibly have been a case of suicide?" Quarles asked, suddenly leaning forward.
"Have you examined the wound carefully?" asked the doctor.
"I have."
"If you will try to stab yourself like that you will see how impossible it is. Besides, you forget that no knife has been found, and in a case of suicide it would have been. I may add that the knife used was not in the least like the one I see on the table there."
"It must have had a point, you think?" said Quarles.
"I do not think—I am certain."
"Did Mr. Hardiman ever say anything about these bits of rock to you?"
"Never," answered the doctor. "I think I suggested to the captain that they might be valuable. I have no knowledge on the point, but I cannot conceive a man like Hardiman carrying them about unless they were of value."
"I take it he is a geologist," Quarles said carelessly.
Sir Robert would like to have been present throughout our inquiry, but the professor firmly but courteously objected. He said it would not be fair to those chiefly concerned, and he appealed to me to endorse his opinion. The doctor had raised a spirit of antagonism in him. They were both too dogmatic to agree easily.