Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/370

338 far to the left. The one that killed him makes five."

"Exactly!" Siler followed Trant's indication triumphantly, "the fifth in his head! The first four went off in their struggle; and then she got away and, with the fifth, shot him."

"But the shells," Trant continued; "for that sort of revolver ejects the shells as they are fired—and I see only four. Where is the fifth?"

"You're trying to fog this thing all up, Mr. Trant."

"No; I'm trying to clear it. How could anyone have left the room after the firing of the last shot? No one could have gone through the door and not been seen by us in the hall; besides the door was bolted on the inside," Trant pointed to the two bolts. "No one could have left except by the window—this window which was open when we came in, but which must have been closed when one, at least, of the shots was being fired. You remember I went at once to it and looked out, but saw nothing."

Trant re-crossed the room swiftly and threw the window open, intently re-examining it. On the outside it was barred with a heavy grating, but he saw that the key to the grating was in the lock.

"Bring the lamp," he said to the plain-clothes man; and as Siler screened the flame against the wind—"Ah!" he continued, "look at the ice cracked from it there—it must have been swung open. He must have gone out this way!"

"He?" Siler repeated.

The plain-clothes man had squeezed past Trant, as