This was no accident! One end of the
bar had been filed completely through, although the file marks
had been carefully concealed with rust and dirt; and the other
end had been wrenched out from its socket and then replaced in
such a way that anyone leaning upon the bar could not fail to be
precipitated into the street!"
"Good heavens! Then you mean------"
"I mean, Knox, that the man who occupied the supper room on the
night before the tragedy--the dark man, tanned and bearded, with
slightly oblique eyes---spent his time in filing through that
bar--in short, in preparing a death trap!"
I was almost dumbfounded.
"But, Harley," I said, "assuming that he knew his victim would be
the next occupant of the room, how could he know------?"
I stopped. Suddenly, as if a curtain had been raised, the
details of what I now perceived to be a fiendishly cunning murder
were revealed to me.
"According to his own account, Knox," resumed Harley, "Major
Ragstaff regularly passed along that street with military
punctuality at the same hour every night. You may take it for
granted that the murderer was well aware of this. As a matter of
fact, I happen to know that he was. We must also take it for
granted that the murderer knew of these little dinners for two
which took place in the private room above the Cafe Dame every
Wednesday--and sometimes on Friday.
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