They then did the deed with the queerest and noisiest weapon in the world so as to tell everyone what had happened--a weapon that was never seen in the house before.

That does not seem a very likely start, does it ?" "No, it does not." "Well, then, everyone is agreed that after the alarm was given only a minute at the most had passed before the whole household--not Mr.Cecil Barker alone, though he claims to have been the first, but Ames and all of them were on the spot.

Do you tell me that in that time the guilty person managed to make footmarks in the corner, open the window, mark the sill with blood, take the wedding ring off the dead man's finger, and all the rest of it?
It's impossible!" "You put it very clearly," said Holmes.

"I am inclined to agree with you." "Well, then, we are driven back to the theory that it was done by someone from outside.

We are still faced with some big difficulties; but anyhow they have ceased to be impossibilities.