right. There's no point in denying it, I have got my eye on him. Not that
there's anything definite; but you know as well as I do how often servants are
mixed up in affairs of this kind, and this man is such a very quiet customer.
You remember the case of Lord William Russell's valet, who went in as usual,
in the morning, to draw up the blinds in his master's bedroom, as quiet and
starchy as you please, a few hours after he had murdered him in his bed. I've
talked to all the women of the house, and I don't believe there's a morsel of
harm in one of them. But Martin's not so easy set aside. I don't like his
manner; I believe he's hiding something. If so, I shall find it out.'

'Cease!' said Trent. 'Drain not to its dregs the urn of bitter prophecy. Let
us get back to facts. Have you, as a matter of evidence, anything at all to
bring against Martin's story as he has told it to us?'

'Nothing whatever at present. As for his suggestion that Manderson came in by
way of the window after leaving Marlowe and the car, that's right enough, I
should say. I questioned the servant who swept the room next morning, and she
tells me there were gravelly marks near the window, on this plain drugget that
goes round the carpet. And there's a footprint in this soft new gravel just
outside.' The inspector took a folding rule from his pocket and with it
pointed out the traces. 'One of the patent shoes Manderson was wearing that
night exactly fits that print; you'll find them,' he added, 'on the top shelf
in the bedroom, near the window end, the only patents in the row. The girl who
polished them in the morning picked them out for me.'

Trent bent down and studied the faint marks keenly. 'Good!' he said. 'You have
covered a lot of ground, Murch, I must say. That was excellent about the
whisky; you made your point finely. I felt inclined to shout "Encore!" It's a
thing that I shall have to think over.'