"The four servants, three women and a man, had their supper.
During the supper the man asserted that he heard the front
door open, but as Miss Loach was in the habit of walking in
the garden before retiring, it was thought that she had gone
out to take her usual stroll. Whether the man heard the door
open or shut he was not quite sure. However, thinking his
mistress was walking in the garden as usual, the man paid no
further attention to the incident. At eleven (precisely at
eleven, for the kitchen clock struck), the sitting-room bell
rang. Susan Grant entered the room, and found Miss Loach
seated in her chair exactly as she had left her, even to the
fact that the cards were in her lap. But she had been stabbed
to the heart with some sharp instrument and was quite dead.
The front door was closed and the windows barred.

"Now it is certain that Miss Loach met her death between the
hours of ten and eleven. Susan Grant saw her alive at ten,
seated in her usual chair with the cards on her lap, and at
eleven, she there found her dead, still with the cards. It
would seem as though immediately after the servants left the
room someone had stabbed the deceased to the heart, before she
had time to rise or even alter her position. But Susan Grant
asserts that no one was in the room. There was only one door,
out of which she departed. The bedroom of Miss Loach on the
basement floor had a door which opened into the passage, as
did the sitting-room door. No one could have entered until
the servant departed. The passage was lighted with electricity,
but she did not observe anyone about, nor did she hear a sound.
She showed out Mr. Clancy and then returned to the kitchen.
Certainly the assassin may have been concealed in the bedroom