“Let’s have a look at the bow,” Bernard suggested.
The finger-print expert had replaced it near the armor. They walked down the library and studied it together.
The Japanese bow was about seven and a half feet long over all, made of three layers of flat bamboo and bound with cane. The shape was peculiar, the grip for the hand being much nearer the lower end than the upper. Thus the lower limb was less than three feet long, the upper limb almost five. The shorter limb was considerably thinner than the longer one.
Clumsily enough, Landis contrived to bend the bow and release the string from the upper nock. Thus relaxed, the flexible bamboo bent the other way, giving the weapon a peculiar appearance, the belly convex where it had been concave, the ends of the limbs concave where they had been convex.
“Stimson was right,” said Landis, pointing. “Seems a noticing sort of chap!”
Bernard grunted assent.
“Wonder whether he’s missed that bit of feather from his pocket!”
“Thought you implied he didn’t know it was there!”
“I’m not implying anything because I don’t know anything,” retorted Bernard irritably.
Landis was studying the arrows, which were fairly heavy and about three feet long.