Yet in the morning he was discovered lying on the floor of the front-room, stabbed to the heart from behind.

Now every detective knows--indeed it is part of his creed--that, in an affair such as I am describing, nothing is too minute or too trivial to have a bearing upon the case.

The old gentleman had been at supper when the crime was committed, and from the fact that the table was only laid for one, I argued that he had not expected a visitor.

The murderer could not have been hungry, for the food had not been touched.

That the motive was not robbery was also plain from the fact that not a drawer had been opened or a lock forced, while the money in his pocket was still intact.