He looked up in a sort of
startled way as I passed, bidding me good morning, and then resuming
his task. I thought that this man's activities were symbolic of the way
of the world, in whose eternal progression one poor human life counts
as nothing.
Presently I came in sight of that door which opened into the
rhododendron shrubbery, the door by which Colonel Menendez had come out
to meet his death. His bedroom was directly above, and as I picked my
way through the closely growing bushes, which at an earlier time I had
thought to be impassable, I paused in the very shadow of the tower and
glanced back and upward. I could see the windows of the little smoke-
room in which we had held our last interview with Menendez; and I
thought of the shadow which Harley had seen upon the blind. I was
unable to disguise from myself the fact that when Inspector Aylesbury
should learn of this occurrence, as presently he must do, it would give
new vigour to his ridiculous and unpleasant suspicions.
I passed on, and considering the matter impartially, found myself faced
by the questions--Whose was the shadow which Harley had seen upon the
blind? And with what purpose did Colonel Menendez leave the house at
midnight?
Somnambulism might solve the second riddle, but to the first I could
find no answer acceptable to my reason.
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