"
"I think you would," said Crewe. "These discoveries come to one naturally
as the result of training one's mind in a particular direction."
"They come to you, but they wouldn't come to me," said Walters with a
smile. "But do you think Kemp's story of how Sir Horace was shot is
literally true? Do you think Sir Horace got in the first shot and then
tried to fire again? If that is so, I don't see how they can hope to
convict Kemp of murder--a jury would not go beyond a verdict of
manslaughter in such a case."
"You handled Kemp so well that he was too excited to tell anything but
the truth," said Crewe. "Sir Horace fired first and missed--the bullet
which Chippenfield removed from the wall of the library shows that--and
he pulled the trigger again but the cartridge which had been in the
revolver for a considerable time, probably for years, missed fire. Here
is a silent witness to the truth of that part of Kemp's story."
Crewe produced from a waistcoat pocket one of the four cartridges he had
removed from the revolver Mademoiselle Chiron had handed to him and he
placed it on the table. On the cap of the cartridge was a mark where the
hammer had struck without exploding the powder.
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