Consequently I was informed that at the end of the month my connection with the Queensland Police would terminate.
"Very well, sir," I said, "in the meantime, if you will give me the opportunity, I will guarantee to catch the murderer and prove to you that I am not as incapable as you imagine." I have often wondered since that I was not ordered back to the Bush there and then.

The fact remains, however, that I was not, and thus I was permitted to continue my quest unhindered.
Ever since I had first taken the affair in hand I had had one point continually before my eyes.

The mere fact that the man had been stabbed in the back seemed to me sufficient proof that the assassin was of foreign origin, and that the affair was the outcome of a vendetta, and not the act of an ordinary bloodthirsty crime.

The wound, so the doctors informed me, was an extremely deep and narrow one, such as might very well have been made by a stiletto.

Assuming my supposition to be correct, I returned to the house, and once more overhauled the dead man's effects.