Page:Fletcher - The Mortover Grange Affair.pdf/197

 "A billhook!" he exclaimed. "And—see that?"

He pointed to a dark-hued patch on one side of the blade and shook his head significantly.

"Blood!" he said. "Blood!"

The two men and the woman stood for a minute in silence staring at this relic of a crime. Then the inspector took it out of Wedgwood's hand and went closer to the window.

"Don't know a tool of this sort by that name," he said. "Billhook, eh? Where do they call it that—I should have called it a wood-chopper! And what's it used for, where it's so called?"

"It's called a billhook in most country places," answered Wedgwood. "You see what it is—a curved blade of stout steel. They use it for lopping hedges, pruning, and that sort of thing. It could be used for chopping wood, of course. But billhook's what I've always heard it called."

"An old one, too, this!" remarked the inspector. "Edge blunted."

"Yes," assented Wedgwood. He took back the billhook, and began to point to it. "You see?" he went on. "All clean along the curved edge—clean of blood, anyhow. The murderer didn't hit Wraypoole with the sharp edge—he struck him with the back of this thing. That's