Henderson daily dispatch., 1938-03-05
CHAPTER A

THEN, I put my little question
to the chauffeur" M. Plcon went
on. "I want to be sure that
he was not in the village, 1 say.
Can he tell me something which
will prove him to have been else
where? And he, the poor fool,
who does not know Amer Picon,
tells me of the flag that was at
half-mast. He leaves me then
only one thing to do. 1t is hope,
a chance, that he stopped the car
at a point from which that tower
is to be seen. And VOLTA! it comes
true! I discover that he went
there with his accomplish.
"Then worse, they both deny
that they were out together. How
foolish! Had they been innocent,
WHY should they conceal it? A
little scolding for an offense in
the routine of the house, what is
that? Nothing. And by denying
it. they make it guilty. Oh yes,
even this young man had his
plumbers.
"That then, mes anis. is the ex-
PLANTATION of this mystery. You,
unfortunately, all of you who
tried to solve it, sought the i'm
possible. You thought, as the
murderer intended that you should
think. about the manner in which
someone could have escaped from
the room after the screams and
before your entry. That was
foolish. 1t should have been evil
dent at once to you that nobody
could have escaped in that time.
Then either he was still there, or
the screaming had not been done
at the time of the murder. And
since he was not still there, VOLTA!
the certainty was the latter. You
see how simple, how logical, now
that Papa Picon explains? But
no-you do not reason so. You
begin to think of the unnatural,
of creatures with wings. You
should have known that always,
my friends, always in such cases
of a murder behind locked doors
the explanation is a matter not of
the means of escape, but of the
time at which the crime was done.
All, if we all drew the conclusions
which murderers mean us to draw,
what a happy time for murderers!
But fortunately there are some
who have sense of logic!
''This man had, as you say, all
the luck. Everything conspired
to shift the blame onto other
shoulders, and to confuse the in
vestigators. There was Monsieur
Strickland, the stepson, who
would benefit so much, who had
been in trouble and changed his
name, who slept next door. There
was the butler, already guilty of
blackmail. There was the cure,
who was not quite well in the
head, and who arrives at the bed
side so soon after the murder
And there was Monsieur Norris
who was also upstairs at the time.
So many to be suspected! So
much confusion. Surely he is
lucky. But Unfortunately there
arrives Amer Picon, with his
sense of logic. He is lucky no
more. He and his accomplice are
discovered. VOLTA! CeSt t0utw
Looking back on the moment at
which M. Picon finished, I think
that my first emotion was one of
sympathy with Lord Simon. It
must have been CALLING to him to
see his card castle collapse, and
the ironclad edifice of M. Picon
take it's place. He had worked so
hard and conscientiously, that he
deserved to have been successful.
But no. The little foreigner was
obviously congratulating himself.
All doubt was now removed.
M. Picon had scarcely finished
speaking, and was still smiling in
self-congratulation, when Mgr.
Smith unexpectedly began.
What you all seem to forget"
he said, "is that a man who can
be spy, can also be spider"
AT once remembered all his
mystic references to King Bruce,
and things or people or facts that
hang on threads, and I asked my
self what abstruse wonders were