visible in the gloom? Assuredly it was drawn upward. And now having
established a hole in the ceiling of the room in which Hester stands,
is it unreasonable--even without further evidence--to suspect another
in the flooring? But we actually have this further evidence. As she
rushes to the door she falls, faints, and fractures the lower part of
her leg. Had she fallen _over_ some object, as you supposed, the result
might have been a fracture also, but in a different part of the body;
being where it was, it could only have been caused by placing the foot
inadvertently in a hole while the rest of the body was in rapid motion.
But this gives us an approximate idea of the _size_ of the lower hole;
it was at least big enough to admit the foot and lower leg, big enough
therefore to admit that "good-sized ball of cotton" of which the woman
speaks: and from the lower we are able to conjecture the size of the
upper. But how comes it that these holes are nowhere mentioned in the
evidence? It can only be because no one ever saw them. Yet the rooms
must have been examined by the police, who, if they existed, must have
seen them. They therefore did not exist: that is to say, the pieces
which had been removed from the floorings had by that time been neatly
replaced, and, in the case of the lower one, covered by the carpet, the
removal of which had caused so much commotion in Randolph's room on the
fatal day. Hester Dyett would have been able to notice and bring at
least one of the apertures forward in evidence, but she fainted before
she had time to find out the cause of her fall, and an hour later it
was, you remember, Randolph himself who bore her from the room. But
should not the aperture in the top floor have been observed by the
class? Undoubtedly, if its position was in the open space in the middle
of the room. But it was not observed, and therefore its position was
not there, but in the only other place left--behind the apparatus used
in demonstration. That then was _one_ useful object which the
apparatus--and with it the elaborate hypocrisy of class, and speeches,