us. We missed the one chance that might have led to an arrest. And
now, what I want to ask you once more is this: Reflecting over what
you've heard and read to-day, do you think you can recollect--a
very small matter--whether or not there were SEVERAL distinct
flashes?"

I shut my eyes once more, and looked hard into the past. Slowly, as
I looked, a sort of dream seemed to come over me. I saw it vaguely
now, or thought I saw it. Flash, flash, flash, flash. Then the sound
of the pistol. Then the Picture, and the Horror, and the awful
blank. I opened my eyes again, and told the Inspector so.

"And once more," he went on, in a very insinuating voice. "Shut your
eyes again, and look back upon that day. Can't you remember whether
or not, just a moment before, you saw the murderer's face by the
light of the flashes?"

I shut my eyes and thought. Again the flashes seemed to stand out
clear and distinct. But no detail supervened--no face came back to
me. I felt it was useless.

"Impossible!" I said shortly. "It only makes my head swim. I can
remember no further."

"I see," the Inspector answered. "It's just as Dr. Wade said.
Suggest a fact in your past history, and you may possibly remember
it; but ask you to recall anything not suggested or already known,
and all seems a mere blank to you! You haven't the faintest idea,
then, who the murderer was or what he looked like?"