"
"Then Miles had from midnight till dawn to remove the gun!"
"Yes. Some time during the night, after Flora was asleep with a
sedative, which she badly needed because of the quarrel--a genuine
one--which she and Tracey had had over Sprague--Miles slipped down to
the trophy room and removed the gun and vise. But he could not remove
the holes the screws had made, although he did cover the bottom of the
usually empty drawer with old pamphlets on the care and feeding of
dogs.... By the way, the chambermaid told me that her master spent about
half an hour before dinner that Thursday night in the trophy room,
'going over his fishing tackle'.... His next concern was to make the
murder jibe completely with Captain Strawn's theory of a gunman who had
trailed his quarry to the Miles home and shot him through the window.
The window was already open, but the screen had to be raised, too, and
Sprague's fingerprints had to be on the nickel catches by which the
screen curtain is raised or lowered. Of course Sprague had not touched
the screen----"
"Do you mean to say he lugged the corpse to the window and lifted it up
so that he could press the stiff fingers upon the nickel catches?"
Sanderson asked with a shudder. "What a fiend----"
"No," Dundee assured him.
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