Would anything come of it?

Morning passed; no news of Antoinette Duclos.

Afternoon:  messages of all kinds leading to much work, but bringing no result.

Five o’clock:  a missive from the directors of the museum to the effect that under the peculiar circumstances and the seeming absence of any friends of the deceased, they would be glad to furnish the means necessary to the proper care and burial of the young woman killed in such an unhappy manner within their walls.

A half-hour later, Gryce, for whose appearance the Inspector had been anxiously waiting, came in with his report.  A chair was pushed up for him, for he was an old man and had had a sleepless night, as we know, besides two days of continued work.  But he did not drop into it, as the Inspector expected, or give any other signs of exceptional fatigue; yet when he had seated himself and they were left alone, he did not hasten to speak, though he evidently had much to say, but remained quiet, holding counsel, as it were, in his old way, with some small object he had picked up from the desk before him.

At last the Inspector spoke: 

“You have been on the hunt; what did you find?”

“Not much, Inspector—­and yet enough to disturb me in a way I was not looking for.  Of course, in studying the situation carefully, you have asked yourself how the man who shot the arrow from behind the upper pedestal got away.  He did not wait as Travis did till the first excitement had abated and the way was, in a manner, cleared for an escape into the court.  For X, as we will call him, was certainly among those I saw lined up before me at the moment I bade them one and all to return and stand until released, in the exact spot occupied by them when the first alarm rang out.  After the surprise Travis gave us we had the building searched from roof to cellar.  Not another soul was found in it whose name was not registered on the chart.  As I have already said, the guilty one had managed to escape immediately upon the flight of the arrow, though how, even then, he could have got below in the time he did is a mystery which trips me up every time I think of it.  But letting that go for the present, he did get there and get there unnoticed.  How?  Now, there are three ways of escape from behind either of those pedestals.  The way Travis took, that is, toward the front, and round through the suite of rooms headed by the one marked H, to the rear staircase; the more direct one of an immediate exit from the gallery through Sections VI and VII to this same staircase; and (the only one worth considering) a straight plunge for the door behind the tapestry and so down by the winding staircase beyond, into the Curator’s office.  The unknown never went Travis’ way, and he couldn’t have gone the other without running into the arms of Correy; so he must have made use of the hidden door.  So convinced was I of this, after last night’s discovery eliminated