'That is where you are very much mistaken. Bring me the boots the
butler wore.'
'He did not wear boots, sir. He wore a pair of cloth slippers.'
'Do you know where they are?'
'Yes; they are in the boot closet.'
'Very well, bring them out, examine their soles, and sticking in one
of them you will find a short sliver of pointed oak.'
The constable, looking slightly more stupefied than ever, brought the
slippers, and I heard him ejaculate: 'Well, I'm blowed!' as he
approached me. He handed me the slippers soles upward, and there, as I
have stated, was the fragment of oak, which I pulled out.
'Now, if you take this piece of oak to the top of the stair, you will
see that it fits exactly a slight interstice at the edge of one of the
planks. It is as well to keep one's eyes open, constable, when
investigating a case like this.'
'Well, I'm blowed!' he said again, as we walked up the stair
together.
I showed him that the sliver taken from the slipper fitted exactly the
interstice I had indicated.
'Now,' said I to him, 'the butler was not going up the stairs, but was
coming down. When he fell headlong he must have made a fearful
clatter. Shuffling along with his burden, his slipper was impaled by
this sliver, and the butler's hands being full, he could not save
himself, but went head foremost down the stair.
Pages:
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294