The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-25
MAGAZINE

MAGAZINE
 "Well, what do you think were the orig inal marks on the :.airs that the intruder was 70 anxious to remove?"
 "Bloodstains."
 "But why should he go to the trouble of removing bloodstains on the stairs and yet leave so much blood about in the room in which the body was discovered?"
 "I have asked myself that question:" said Crewe. "At the present stage it is very difficult to answer"
 "You think it adds to the mystery"
 "For the present it does. But it may prove to be key which will open many closed doors in this Investigation
 "Your mention of closed doors suggests another question:" said Marsland. "Why did this man get out of the window and walk backward? If he wanted to leave m;s- leading clues it would have been just as easy for him to go out by the front door, walk up to the window from the path so as to leave footprints and then force the window from. the outside.''
 "Just as easy," assented Crewe. "But it woulc have taken longer, becauSe it is more difficult to force the catch of q win. dow from the outside than the inside. I think that we must assume that he was pressed for time."
 But I understand that this man .ums- den lived alone. In that case there would be little danger of interruption"
 "A man who has just committed q mur- der gets into state of nervous alarm," was Crewe's reply. "He is naturally anxious to get away from the scene of the crmc."
 But if this man knew the place well he must have known that Lumsden lived alone, and that the discovery of the crime would not take place immediately. But for the accident of my taking shelter there the body might have remained undiscovered for days"
 "Quite true. But that does not affect my point that murderer is always in hurry to get away?"
 "Isn't the fact that he went to the trou- ble of washing out bloodstains on the stairs evidence that he was not in hurry?"
 "No," said Crewe emphatically. 'I should be more inclined to accept it as evil dence that he expected some one to call at the farm-that either he or Lumsden had an appointment with some one there."
 Marsland looked very hard at Crewe as he recalled the greetig Miss Maynard had given him when she opened the door to his knock.
 'I did not think of that" he said.
 ''That supposition gives us a probable explanation why the bloodstains were wiped off the stairs and not off the floor of the room in which you saw the body. The murderer was expecting a visitor by ap- pointment. The suspicious of this visitor would be aroused if he saw bloodstains on the stairs. But as he was not expected to go upstairs the murderer did not trou- ble about the stains in the room. This is another indication of pressure of time."
 Marsland felt that Crewe was on the track of discovering Miss Maynard's pres ence at the farm. He began to see in the light of Crewe's deductions that her chief object in having asked him to keep her name out of the affair was to shelter some one else. But having given his word he must keep it and stand by the consequences.
 CHAPTER
 Detective Gillett made journey to Lon- don in order to visit Somerset House and inspect the will left by James Lumsden, the grandfather of the man who had been mur- dered. He had been able to ascertain, from local sources of information at Ash lingsea, some of the details of the will, but as an experienced detective he knew the value of exact details obtained from offi- cial sources.
 His perusal of the will showed him that Cliff Farm and all the testator's invest