“You did not move the body?”

“Certainly not; a more complete examination must be made, of course.  But I extracted a piece of torn paper from her clenched right hand.”

Inspector Dunbar lowered his tufted brows.

“I’m not glad to know you did that,” he said.  “It should have been left.”

“It was done on the spur of the moment, but without altering the position of the hand or arm.  The paper lies upon the table, yonder.”

Inspector Dunbar took a long drink.  Thus far he had made no attempt to examine the victim.  Pulling out a bulging note-case from the inside pocket of his blue serge coat, he unscrewed a fountain-pen, carefully tested the nib upon his thumb nail, and made three or four brief entries.  Then, stretching out one long arm, he laid the wallet and the pen beside his glass upon the top of a bookcase, without otherwise changing his position, and glancing aside at Exel, said:—­

“Now, Mr. Exel, what help can you give us?”

“I have little to add to Dr. Cumberly’s account,” answered Exel, offhandedly.  “The whole thing seemed to me"...

“What it seemed,” interrupted Dunbar, “does not interest Scotland Yard, Mr. Exel, and won’t interest the jury.”

Leroux glanced up for a moment, then set his teeth hard, so that his jaw muscles stood out prominently under the pallid skin.

“What do you want to know, then?” asked Exel.

“I will be wanting to know,” said Dunbar, “where you were coming from, to-night?”

“From the House of Commons.”

“You came direct?”

“I left Sir Brian Malpas at the corner of Victoria Street at four minutes to twelve by Big Ben, and walked straight home, actually entering here, from the street, as the clock was chiming the last stroke of midnight.”

“Then you would have walked up the street from an easterly direction?”

“Certainly.”

“Did you meet any one or anything?”

“A taxi-cab, empty—­for the hood was lowered—­passed me as I turned the corner.  There was no other vehicle in the street, and no person.”

“You don’t know from which door the cab came?”

“As I turned the corner,” replied Exel, “I heard the man starting his engine, although when I actually saw the cab, it was in motion; but judging by the sound to which I refer, the cab had been stationary, if not at the door of Palace Mansions, certainly at that of the next block—­St. Andrew’s Mansions.”

“Did you hear, or see anything else?”

“I saw nothing whatever.  But just as I approached the street door, I heard a peculiar whistle, apparently proceeding from the gardens in the center of the square.  I attached no importance to it at the time.”

“What kind of whistle?”

“I have forgotten the actual notes, but the effect was very odd in some way.”

“In what way?”

“An impression of this sort is not entirely reliable, Inspector; but it struck me as Oriental.”