“I have been round the house,” he said. “It does not seem to me it ought to take you three or even two minutes to walk from the side door to the front door. I should say it would be a matter of about thirty seconds!”
“Excuse me,” Robin answered quickly, “I didn’t say I went straight from the side to the front door. I went through the gardens following the path that leads to the main drive. There I turned and came back to the front door.”
“And you assert that you heard nothing?”
“I heard nothing.”
“Neither the ‘loud voices’ which the butler heard within two minutes of your leaving the house nor the shot fired five minutes later?”
“I heard nothing.”
Mr. Manderton examined the toes of his boots carefully.
“You heard nothing!” he repeated.
The door opened suddenly and Dr. Romain appeared. With him was the village practitioner and Inspector Humphries.
Dr. Redstone carried in his hand a little pad of cotton wool. He bore it over to the fireplace and unwrapping the lint showed a twisted fragment of lead lying on the bloodstained dressing.