“How do I know?” snorted Bernard. “Joel or Russell or Allen or Stimson! Any one of them could have hidden the cross-bow in one of those lockers in the billiard-room or behind that couch in the hall! Any one of them could have got to that library door. We’ll get the method first and then the man—or woman!”
Landis shook his head.
“Joel couldn’t, without coming down the front or the back stairs or going the whole length of both wing halls. In any of those cases somebody would have seen or heard him.”
“That cross-bow killed Harrison,” Bernard declared.
Landis was silent for several minutes. Abruptly he flung up his head and chuckled joyously.
“We’re a pair of fools!” he exclaimed. “Come on down to the library!”
Bernard followed him without demur. When he reached the long room, Landis touched the bell on Harrison’s desk. In a moment the butler appeared from the hall.
“Stimson,” said Landis, “did Mr. Harrison stoop?”
“Why—er—not as a rule, sir!” declared Stimson. “He carried himself quite erect, as I remember.”
Landis looked disappointed.