"He has not hanged himself. Again the stage has been set!... I could swear the man had been killed by blows from a hammer and hanged afterwards!... It seems to me, that if death had been caused through strangulation, there would have been marks round the neck.... But see, Fandor, the rope has hardly made a mark."
"No, the man was dead when they strung him up."
"It is of secondary importance!" remarked Fandor, who was preoccupied.
"You are mistaken: it matters a great deal! It decidedly looks as if Dollon had accomplices, who wished to be rid of him."
Fandor shook his head.
"It is not Dollon! It cannot be Dollon!"
"Look at the vitriolised hands—that was a precaution."
"I say, as you did just now: it's like a set piece—a bit of slag assassins' stage craft."
"I say, in Dollon's house, we have found Dollon at home!"
Fandor was not convinced. He felt certain Dollon had lied in the Dépôt.