Amazed to find it there, he had taken it out, examined it carefully, noted the nick I mentioned and tossed it back again into the box.

This he told, but reluctantly.
"Why reluctantly, I was soon to find out.

He was not alone in the cellar.
The shadow of some person at his back had fallen across the lid of the box as he was closing it.

He did not recognize the shadow and had not given it at the time a second thought, but the remembrance of it came back vividly when he saw the bow lying before him and realized the part it had played in the morning's tragedy.

Was it because he knew that only a person actively connected with the museum would have access to that part of the cellar?
I asked.