“‘Employing his leisure time in writing a play—­’” quoted Mr. Howell.

“Exactly.  ’The husband and wife were not on good terms.  They quarreled frequently.  On Sunday they fought all day, and Mrs. Ladley told Mrs. Pitman she was married to a fiend.  At four o’clock Sunday afternoon, Philip Ladley went out, returning about five.  Mrs. Pitman carried their supper to them at six, and both ate heartily.  She did not see Mrs. Ladley at the time, but heard her in the next room.  They were apparently reconciled:  Mrs. Pitman reports Mr. Ladley in high good humor.  If the quarrel recommenced during the night, the other boarder, named Reynolds, in the next room, heard nothing.  Mrs. Pitman was up and down until one o’clock, when she dozed off.  She heard no unusual sound.

“’At approximately two o’clock in the morning, however, this Reynolds came to the room, and said he had heard some one in a boat in the lower hall.  He and Mrs. Pitman investigated.  The boat which Mrs. Pitman uses during a flood, and which she had tied to the stair-rail, was gone, having been cut loose, not untied.  Everything else was quiet, except that Mrs. Ladley’s dog had been shut in a third-story room.

“’At a quarter after four that morning Mrs. Pitman, thoroughly awake, heard the boat returning, and going to the stairs, met Ladley coming in.  He muttered something about having gone for medicine for his wife and went to his room, shutting the dog out.  This is worth attention, for the dog ordinarily slept in their room.’”

“What sort of a dog?” asked Mr. Howell.  He had been listening attentively.

“A water-spaniel.  ’The rest of the night, or early morning, was quiet.  At a quarter after seven, Ladley asked for coffee and toast for one, and on Mrs. Pitman remarking this, said that his wife was not playing this week, and had gone for a few days’ vacation, having left early in the morning.’  Remember, during the night he had been out for medicine for her.  Now she was able to travel, and, in fact, had started.”

Mr. Howell was frowning at the floor.  “If he was doing anything wrong, he was doing it very badly,” he said.

“This is where I entered the case,” said Mr. Holcombe, “I rowed into the lower hall this morning, to feed the dog, Peter, who was whining on the staircase.  Mrs. Pitman was coming down, pale and agitated over the fact that the dog, shortly before, had found floating in the parlor down-stairs a slipper belonging to Mrs. Ladley, and, later, a knife with a broken blade.  She maintains that she had the knife last night up-stairs, that it was not broken, and that it was taken from a shelf in her room while she dozed.  The question is, then:  Why was the knife taken?  Who took it?  And why?  Has this man made away with his wife, or has he not?”

Mr. Howell looked at me and smiled.  “Mr. Holcombe and I are old enemies,” he said.  “Mr. Holcombe believes that circumstantial evidence may probably hang a man; I do not.”  And to Mr. Holcombe:  “So, having found a wet slipper and a broken knife, you are prepared for murder and sudden death!”