"There can't be much doubt about that," replied Rolfe.
"We mustn't be in a hurry in jumping at conclusions," remarked the
inspector.
"No, and we mustn't ignore obvious facts," said Rolfe.
"You think a woman murdered him?" asked the inspector.
"I think a woman was present when he was shot: whether she fired the shot
there is nothing to show at present. There may have been a man with her.
But there was a struggle just before the shot was fired and as Sir Horace
fell he grasped at the hand in which she was holding her handkerchief. Or
perhaps her handkerchief was torn in his dying struggles when she was
leaning over him."
"You have overlooked the possibility of this having been placed in the
dying man's hand to deceive us," said the inspector.
"If the intention was to mislead us it wouldn't have been placed where it
might have been overlooked."
As the inspector had overlooked the presence of the scrap of handkerchief
in the dead man's hand, he felt that he was not making much progress with
the work of keeping his subordinate in his place.
"Well, it is a clue of a sort," he said. "The trouble is that we have
too many clues.
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