XIII
THE DEDUCTIVE PROCESS
Bisset laid on the table a sheet of note paper.
"Here," said he, "is a kin' of bit sketch plan of the library. Observingthis plan attentively, you will notice two crosses, marked A and B. A iswhere yon wee table was standing--no the place against the wall where itwas standing this morning, but where it was standing before it wasknocked over last night. B is where the corp was found. You follow that,sir?"
Ned nodded.
"I follow," said he.
"Now, the principle in a' these cases of crime and detection," resumedthe philosopher, assuming his lecturer's air, "is noticing such sma'points of detail as escape the eye of the ordinar' observer, taking fulland accurate measurements, making a plan with the principal sitescarefully markit, and drawing, as it were, logical conclusions. Applyingthis method now to the present instance, Mr. Cromarty, the first pointto observe is that the room is twenty-six feet long, measured from thewindie, which is a bit recessed or set back, as it were, to the otherend of the apartment. Half of 26 is 13, and if you take the half wayline and draw approximate perpendiculars to about where the table wasstanding and to as near as one can remember where the middle of the corproughly was lying, you get exactly six feet ten and five-eighths inches,in both cases."
"An approximate perpendicular to roughly about these places gives thisexact measurement?" repeated Cromarty gravely. "Well, what next?"
"Well, sir, I'll not insist too much on the coincidence, but it seems tome vera remarkable. But the two significant features of this case seemto me yon table being upset over by the windie and the corp being foundover by the door."
"You're talking horse sense now," murmured Ned.
"Now, yon table was upset by Sir Reginald falling on it!"
Ned looked at him keenly.
"How do you know?"
"Because one of the legs was broken clean off!"
"What, when we saw it this morning?"
"We had none of us noticed it then, sir; but I've had a look at itsince, and there's one leg broken fair off at the top. The break washalf in the socket, as it were, leaving a kind of spike, and if youstick that into the socket you can make the table look as good as new.It's all right, in fac', until you try to move it, and then of coursethe leg just drops out."
"And it wasn't like that yesterday?"
"I happened to move it myself not so long before Sir Reginald came intothe room, and that's how I know for certain where it was standing andthat it wasn't broken. And yon wee light tables dinna lose their legsjust with being cowped, supposing there was nothing else than that tosmash them. No, sir, it was poor Sir Reginald falling on top of it thatsmashed yon leg."
"Then he was certainly struck down near the window!"
"Well, we'll see that in a minute. It's no in reason, Mr. Cromarty, tosuppose he deliberately opened the windie to let his ain murderer in.And it's a' just stuff and nonsense to suggest Sir Reginald was sittingon a winter's night--or next door to winter onyhow, with his windie wideopen. I'm too well acquaint with his habits to believe that for aminute. And it's impossible the man can have opened a snibbed windie andgot in, with some one sitting in the room, and no alarm given. So it'sperfectly certain the man must have come in at the door. That's a fairdeduction, is it not, sir?"
Ned Cromarty frowned into space in silence. When he spoke it seemed tobe as much to himself as to Bisset.
"How did the window get unsnibbed? Everything beats me, but that beatsme fairly."
"Well, sir, Mr. Rattar may no be just exac'ly as intellectual as me andyou, but I think there's maybe something in his idea it was done to putus off the scent."
"Possibly--but it strikes me as a derned feeble dodge. However, what'syour next conclusion?"
"My next conclusion is, sir, that Simon Rattar may not be so vera farwrong either about Sir Reginald hearing some one at the door andstarting to see who it was. Then--bang!--the door would suddenly open,and afore he'd time to speak, the man had given him a bat on the heidthat finished him."
"And where does the table come in?"
"Well, my explanation is just this, that Sir Reginald suspectedsomething and took the wee table as a kind of weapon."
"Rot!" said Ned ruthlessly. "You think he left the fireplace and wentround by the window to fetch such a useless weapon as that?"
James Bisset was not easily damped.
"That's only a possibility, sir. Excluding that, what must havehappened? For that's the way, Mr. Cromarty, to get at the fac's; youjust exclude what's not possible and what remains is the truth. If you'dread----"
"Well, come on. What's your theory now?"
"Just that Sir Reginald backed away from the door with the man afterhim, till he got to the table. And then down went him and the tabletogether."
"And why didn't he cry out or raise the alarm in some way while he wasbacking away?"
"God, but that fits into my other deductions fine!" cried Bisset. "Ihadna thought of that. Just wait, sir, till you see how the case isgoing to hang together in a minute."
"But how did Sir Reginald's body come to be lying near the door?"
The philosopher seemed to be inspired afresh.
"The man clearly meant to take it away and hide it somewhere--that'll bejust it! And then he found it ower heavy and decided to leave it afterall."
"And who was this man?"
"That's precisely where proper principles, Mr. Cromarty, lead to anumber of vera interesting and instructive discoveries, and I thinkye'll see, sir, that the noose is on the road to his neck already. I'venot got the actual man, mind! In fac' I've no idea who he is, but I cantell you a good few things about him--enough, in fac', to make escapepractically impossible. In the first place, he was one well acquaintwith the ways of the house. Is that not a fair deduction, sir?"
"Sure!" said Ned. "I've put my bottom dollar on that already."
"He came from inside this house and not outside it. How long he'd beenin the house, that I cannot say, but my own deductions are he'd been inthe house waiting for his chance for a good while before the masterheard him at yon door. Is that not a fair deduction too, sir?"
"It's possible," said Ned, though not with great conviction.
"And now here's a point that accounts for Sir Reginald giving noalarm--Sir Reginald knew the man and couldna believe he meantmischief!"
Ned looked at him quickly and curiously.
"Well?" said he.
"Is that not a fair deduction, Mr. Cromarty?"
"Seems to fill the bill."
"And now, here's a few personal details. Yon man was a fair activestrong man to have dealt with the master the way he did. But he was notstrong enough to carry off the corp like a sack of potatoes; he was no agreat muckle big giant, that's to say. And finally, calculating from thedistance the body was from the door and the number of steps he would belikely to take to the door, and sae arriving at his stride and deducinghis height accordingly, he'd be as near as may be five feet nine inchestall. Now, sir, me and you ought to get him with a' that known!"
Ned Cromarty looked at him with a curious gleam in his eye.
"What's your own height, Bisset?" he enquired.
"Five feet nine inches," said the reasoner promptly, and then suddenlyhis mouth fell open but his voice ceased.
"And now," pursued Ned with a grimly humorous look, "can you not thinkof a man just that height, pretty hefty but not a giant, who wascertainly in the house last night, who knew all the ways of it, and whowould never have been suspected by Sir Reginald of meaning mischief?"
"God!" exclaimed the unfortunate reasoner. "I've proved it was mysel'!"
"Well, and what shall I do--string you up now or hand you over to thepolice?"
"But, Mr. Cromarty--you don't believe that's right surely?"
Tragic though the occasion was, Ned could not refrain from one brieflaugh. And then his face set hard again and he said:
"No, Bisset, I do not believe it was you. In fact, I wouldn't beli
eve itwas you if you confessed to it. But I'd advise you not to go spreadingyour deductions abroad! Deduction's a game that wants a bit morepractice than you or I have had."
It is possible that James Bisset had never looked quite so crestfallenin his life.
"Then that's all nonsense I've been talking, sir?" he said lugubriously.
"No," said Ned emphatically. "I'll not say that either. You've broughtout some good points--that broken table, the place the body was found,the possible reason why Sir Reginald gave no alarm; seems to me thosehave something to them. But what they mean--what to conclude; we're asfar off that, Bisset, as ever!"
The philosopher's self esteem was evidently returning as fast as it hadgone.
"Then you wouldn't think there would be any harm, sir, in my continuingmy investigations?"
"On your present lines, the only harm is likely to be to yourself. Keepat it--but don't hang yourself accidentally. And let me know if youdiscover anything else--mind that."
"I'll mind on it, no fears, Mr. Cromarty!"
Ned left him with an expression on his countenance which indicated thatthe deductive process had already been resumed.
Till he arrived at his own door, the laird of Stanesland was unconsciousof a single incident of his drive home. All the way his eye staredstraight into space. Sometimes a gleam would light it for an instant,and then he would shake his head and the gleam would fade away.
"I can see neither a damned head nor a damned tail to it!" he said tohimself as he alighted.
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