Page:Bailey - Call Mr Fortune (Dutton, 1921).djvu/222

Rh probably occurred some days ago. After death, but not long after death, the body received other injuries, a broken rib and left shoulder-blade, probably by a fall from some height. That's the medical evidence. There are other curious circumstances."

"Just a few!" said Bell, with a grim chuckle. "You're very definite, sir, if I might say so. I suppose he couldn't have been killed and had his face smashed like—like he did—by the fall?"

"You can cut that right out. He was killed by a blow and blows smashed his face in. Where did you find him?"

"He was found when the snow melted this morning in the well at Montmorency House."

"Under the snow? That puts the murder on the night of the fifteenth. Yes, that fits; that accounts for his sodden clothes."

"There's a good deal it don't account for," said Bell gloomily.

"I saw him just as he was found?" Bell nodded. "Somebody took a lot of pains with him. He was fully dressed—collar and tie, boots. But a lot of his internal buttons were undone. And there's not a name, not even a maker's name, on any of his clothes. His linen's new and don't show a laundry mark. Yes, somebody took a lot of pains we shouldn't know him."