'night'--the marked variation in the length and angle of the cross
stroke. It is evident that the writers were labouring under serious
excitement when they wrote this."

Rolfe was so interested in Crewe's revelations that he stood beside the
deductive expert and studied the paper afresh.

"And now, about finger-prints?" asked Crews.

"None," was the reply of the inspector, "We had it under the microscope
at Scotland Yard."

"None?" exclaimed Crewe, in surprise. "Why adopt such precautions as
wearing gloves to write a note giving away this startling secret?"

"Easy enough," replied Inspector Chippenfield. "The people who wrote the
note either had little or nothing to do with the murder, but were afraid
suspicion might be directed to them, or else they are the murderers and
want to direct suspicion from themselves."

"And now for the bullets," said Crewe, "I understand two shots
were fired."

"From two revolvers," said the inspector. "Here are both bullets. This
one I picked out of the wall over there. You can see where I've broken
away the plaster. This one--much the bigger one of the two--was the one
that killed Sir Horace. The doctor handed it to me after the
post-mortem."

"Did Sir Horace keep a revolver?"