’Well, you will see the result was quite enough to justify them in saying as they did, that he died by his own hand.  The window was found fastened with a screw on the inside, as it had been when the chambermaid had arranged it at nine o’-clock; no one could have entered through it.  Besides, it was on the third story, and the rooms are lofty, so it stood at a great height from the ground, and there was no ladder long enough to reach it.  The house is built in the form of a hollow square, and Mr. Charke’s room looked into the narrow court-yard within.  There is but one door leading into this, and it did not show any sign of having been open for years.  The door was locked upon the inside, and the key in the lock, so that nobody could have made an entrance that way either, for it was impossible, you see, to unlock the door from the outside.’  ’And how could they affect to question anything so clear?’ I asked.

’There did come, nevertheless, a kind of mist over the subject, which gave those who chose to talk unpleasantly an opportunity of insinuating suspicions, though they could not themselves find the clue of the mystery.  In the first place, it appeared that he had gone to bed very tipsy, and that he was heard sing ing and noisy in his room while getting to bed—­not the mood in which men make away with themselves.  Then, although his own razor was found in that dreadful blood (it is shocking to have to hear all this) near his right hand, the fingers of his left were cut to the bone.  Then the memorandum book in which his bets were noted was nowhere to be found.  That, you know, was very odd.  His keys were there attached to a chain.  He wore a great deal of gold and trinkets.  I saw him, wretched man, on the course.  They had got off their horses.  He and your uncle were walking on the course.’

‘Did he look like a gentleman?’ I inquired, as I dare say, other young ladies would.

’He looked like a Jew, my dear.  He had a horrid brown coat with a velvet cape, curling black hair over his collar, and great whiskers, very high shoulders, and he was puffing a cigar straight up into the air.  I was shocked to see Silas in such company.’

‘And did his keys discover anything?’ I asked.

’On opening his travelling desk and a small japanned box within it a vast deal less money was found than was expected—­in fact, very little.  Your uncle said that he had won some of it the night before at play, and that Charke complained to him when tipsy of having had severe losses to counterbalance his gains on the races.  Besides, he had been paid but a small part of those gains.  About his book it appeared that there were little notes of bets on the backs of letters, and it was said that he sometimes made no other memorandum of his wagers—­but this was disputed—­and among those notes there was not one referring to Silas.  But, then, there was an omission of all allusion to his transactions with two other well-known gentlemen.  So that was not singular.’