And I admit that on your testimony the jury returned the only verdict which it was possible to give." "What troubles you then ?" Henry Thresk asked, and Pettifer replied drily: "Various points.

Here's one--a minor one.

If Captain Ballantyne was shot by a thief detected in the act of thieving why should that thief risk capture and death by dragging Captain Ballantyne's body out into the open?
It seems to me the last thing which he would naturally do." Thresk shrugged his shoulders.
"I can't explain that.

It is perhaps possible that not finding the photograph he fell into a blind rage and satisfied it by violence towards the dead man." "Dead or dying," Mr.Pettifer corrected.

"There seems to have been some little doubt upon that point.