of the left lung," said Mr. Flexen.

So saying, he gently drew the easy chair, in which the body was huddled,
nearer the door by its back. Mr. Manley bade Holloway fetch Wilkins and
two of the grooms, and then, eager for hints of the actions of a
detective, so useful to a dramatist, gave all his attention again to the
proceedings of Mr. Flexen, who was down on one knee on the spot in which
the chair had stood, studying the carpet round it. He rose and walked
slowly towards the door which opened into the library, paused on the
threshold to bid Perkins examine the chair and the clothes of the
murdered man, and went into the library.

He was still in it when the footman and the grooms lifted the body of
Lord Loudwater out of the chair, and carried it up to his bedroom. Mr.
Manley stayed on the threshold of the smoking-room. His interest in the
doings of Mr. Flexen forbade him leaving it to superintend decorously the
removal of the body.

Presently Mr. Flexen came back, and as he walked round the room,
examining the rest of it, especially the carpet, Mr. Manley studied the
man himself, the detective type. He was about five feet eight,
broad-shouldered out of proportion to that height, but thin. He had an
uncommonly good forehead, a square, strong chin, a hooked nose and thin,
set lips, which gave him a rather predatory air, belied rather by his
pleasant blue eyes. The sun wrinkles round their corners and his sallow
complexion gave Mr. Manley the impression that he had spent some years in
the tropics and suffered for it.

When Mr. Flexen had examined the room, though Inspector Perkins had
already done so, he felt round the cushions of the easy chair in which