The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-18
MAGAZINE


 stains on the floor near the dead mans feet, and also near the window at the side of the chair.
 'I see that the window is broken" said Inspector Payne, pointing to one of the panes in the window near the armchair.
 By bullet" said Sergeant Westaway. He pulled down the window blind and pointed to hole in it which had evidently been made by a bullet "When I came in the blind was down. pulled it up in order to let in some light. But the fact that there is hole in the window blind shows that the murder was committed at night, when the blind was down. I should say two shots were feed. The first went through the window, and the other killed him."
 'I think the bullet that killed him has gone through him." said Crewe, who had moved the body in order to examine the back of it. Ut looks as if he was shot from behind, because the wound in the back is lower down than the one in front" He pointed to hole in the back of the coat where the cloth showed a similar discoored patch to the one in the vest.
 'It must have been powerful weapon # the bullet has gone through him." said Gill lett. That means we shall have no bullet to guide us as to the caliber of the weapon, ] unless we can find the one that wen. through the wndow."
 Perhaps there was only one-shot fired, after all" remarked Inspector Payne. "The victim may have been standing by the win dow when he was shot, and then have stag gered to the chair. Otherwise if he were shot in the back while sitting in the chair the bullet should be embedded in the chair or wall. But can see sign of it."
 "Not necessarily" said Giliett. Look at the position on the armchair. It is possible that the bullet, after going through the man, wen through the window. That would account for the broken pane of glass;"
 The pocketbook and the papers 1t con- tained were next examined. Inspector Payne asked Marsla1d concerning the mys- terious plan he had picked up on the stairs. Marsland borrowed sheet of paper from the inspectors large notebook and drew . rough sketch of the plan as he remembered it. He explained that as he had lost his glasses while out in the storm he had not been able to make close study of the plan. While he was engaged in reproducing the plan as far as he remembered it, Sergeant Westaway heightened Crewe and Sir George Granville about the theory he had formed that the murderer was in the house when Marslnad discovered the body, and that, after Marsland left the murderer made his escape and took from the sitting room downstairs the plan he had dropped on the stairs when he heard Marsland in the house.
 'sWhat do you make of this, MT. Crewe. "But it is not worth while trying to solve the riddle from sketch drawn from mem ory Get the murderer and you will prob ably get the original plan as we'll"
 Sergeant Westaway, in pursuance of his duties as guide, took his visitors down. stairs to the sitting room for the purpose of showing them how the window had been forced in order to provide an entrance He pointed to mark on the sash which indi- cated that knife had been used to force back the catch.
 This was the room in which Miss May nard had been sitting when Marsland had arrived to ooIaih SheiIei iioni siio had arrived to obtain shelter from the storm Marsland noticed the chair beside which she had stood while they were in the room together before going upstairs to in- vestigate the cause of the crash they had heard. He gave start as he saw behind the chair small tortoise shell comb, such as ladies sometimes wear to keep their hair up. He stopped quickly to pick it up, and as he did so he realized that he had blun-