Melville Davisson Post

“ She looked vaguely about the court room; presently her eyes rested on the floor.
“Yes,” she said, “it’s all true; but I was not the only person who wanted to kill him.” She hesitated. “What I said was talk—just talk; the other people who wanted to kill him meant it.” ”

“ Colonel Armant was there; they were sitting in the engine house when they heard the shots. McNagel ran with the Colonel to Collander’s house; they were the first persons on the ground. McNagel was there when the woman ran out of the house and when she shouted, ‘Save me, Colonel.’ He went after her and brought her back, so the alibi had to be given up. The only thing left is the ‘mysterious stranger.’ ”
The prosecuting attorney laughed.
“Colonel Armant has to get something to make a defense out of. We have shown that this woman had a motive for killing Collander. ”

“ It’s a mystery what became of that other bullet. The person who shot at Collander must have missed him the first time because only one bullet hit him and there were two shots fired. I heard ’em, and there were two empty cartridges in the pistol. Whoever killed him must have shot at him and missed him. But if they did, that bullet had to hit something in the room; and it never hit anything in the room!”
“Ah!” The attorney’s voice returned to its normal volume. “You couldn’t be mistaken about that, Bobby?”
“No,” the chief of police answered, “there can’t be any mistake about it. ”

“ I thought he shot at me three times, but he must have shot at me five or six times, for every chamber in his pistol was empty.”
“Ah!” said the colonel. “Now, Bobby, that’s just exactly what I wanted to find out. Sometimes shots are fired so close together that the most experienced person—a competent person like yourself—could not say whether there was one report or several reports.”
The chief of police took hold of the lapels of his coat in either hand and looked at the attorney. ”

“ Anyhow, that’s right. The first thing to do is to see that everything stays just the way it is.”
“Precisely!” replied the attorney. “Now, Bobby, isn’t it true that Collander was lying on the floor dead, that his pistol was lying on the floor beside him—two chambers in it empty—and all doors and windows were closed? There were bookcases around the room with glass doors; these were all closed. Now, the first thing you did, Bobby, was to take every precaution to see that all articles in the room should remain precisely as they were found ”