"I doubt it. In all these burglaries, Wigan, we have considered the possibility of the servants being implicated, and in no case has it led us anywhere. More than once there have been clues which pointed to such a conclusion, merely clever ruses on the thieves' part. No, our clue is the dead man."
Quarles questioned Constable Poulton closely. The constable had not heard the shots. About half an hour earlier in the evening he had passed Clarence Lodge. There was no light in the house then. Just before one o'clock he had met Mr. Smithers who lived in the next house to Clarence Lodge; he was coming from the direction of the station and said good night. Since then he had seen no one upon his beat. Poulton described the position of the dead man graphically and minutely. He had no doubt he had been shot a few minutes before he saw him.
"I searched the house with Griffiths, the officer who came when I blew my whistle; we saw no sign of the others."
"How did they get in?" I asked.
"A window in the passage there was open," said Poulton. "That's the only way they could have come unless they fastened some window or door again when they had entered."
I examined this window carefully. There was no sign that any one had entered this way, no mark upon the catch. Outside the window was a flower bed, and I pointed out to Quarles that if any one had left the house in a hurry, as they would do at the sound of firearms, they would inevitably have left marks upon the flower bed.
Quarles had nothing to say against my argument.
"I don't believe either exit or entrance was made by this window,"
I declared.
"Have you still got servants in your mind, Wigan?"
"I have, to tell the truth I always have had."