“About twenty minutes after eleven, sir.”
“Then what?”
“I dried my hands on my apron and stepped into the dining-room to listen. I was not quite sure that the shot had been fired inside the house, but I thought I’d better investigate. So I went up-stairs and, as Mr. Rex’s door was open, I looked in his room first. There I saw the poor young man lying on the floor with the blood running from a small wound in his forehead. I called Doctor Von Blon——”
“Where was the doctor?” Vance put the question.
Sproot hesitated, and appeared to think.
“He was up-stairs, sir; and he came at once——”
“Oh—up-stairs! Roaming about vaguely, I presume—a little here, a little there, what?” Vance’s eyes bored into the butler. “Come, come, Sproot. Where was the doctor?”
“I think, sir, he was in Miss Sibella’s room.”
“Cogito, cogito. . . . Well, drum your encephalon a bit and try to reach a conclusion. From what sector of space did the corporeal body of Doctor Von Blon emerge after you had called him?”
“The fact is, sir, he came out of Miss Sibella’s door.”