"Her bedroom is directly over the dining-room.

If the murderer escaped by the window he must have dropped on to this gravel path." "It is a pretty stiff drop," said Captain Stanhill, measuring the distance with his eye.
"Oh, I don't know," replied Merrington.

"He'd let himself down eight feet with extended arms, and that would leave a drop of only ten feet or thereabouts--not much for an athletic man.

But if he dropped he must have left footprints." "There are none.

I have looked," said Caldew.
The information did not deter Merrington from examining the path anew.
He got down on his hands and knees to scrutinize the gravel and the grass plot more thoroughly.
"Nothing doing here either," he said as he scrambled to his feet.