'But,
Mr Holmes, how did you know a bullet had passed
through the window
frame?'
'Well,'
said Holmes,
'you
remember that the two servants
smelt gunpowder as soon as they left their
rooms?'
'Yes,'
said the Inspector,
'but
I still don't
understand.'
'The
servants'
rooms are upstairs. But the gun was fired
downstairs.
So the smell of the gunpowder must have been blown
from this room to the rooms upstairs. Therefore the window must
have been open.
'A
third person could have stood outside the window and fired
through it. If somebody inside the room fired at this person and
missed, the bullet would pass through the window
frame.'
'I
understand,'
said Inspector Martin.
'But
when the servants
entered this room, they said the window was
shut.'
'That
was
because
Mrs
Cubitt
had
just
shut
it,'
replied
Holmes.
'But
what's
this