Sergeant Bates has fully described the state of the room, and I have
nothing to add on that subject. Dr. Davidson's description of the body
covers all the facts: the woman had been dead about ten hours, the wound
was unquestionably homicidal, and was inflicted in the manner that he
has described. Death was apparently instantaneous, and I should say that
the deceased never awakened from her sleep."
"But," objected the coroner, "the deceased held a lock of hair in her
hand."
"That hair," replied Thorndyke, "was not the hair of the murderer. It
was placed in the hand of the corpse for an obvious purpose; and the
fact that the murderer had brought it with him shows that the crime was
premeditated, and that it was committed by someone who had had access to
the house and was acquainted with its inmates."
As Thorndyke made this statement, coroner, jurymen, and spectators alike
gazed at him in open-mouthed amazement. There was an interval of intense
silence, broken by a wild, hysteric laugh from Mrs. Goldstein, and then
the coroner asked:
"How did you know that the hair in the hand of the corpse was not that
of the murderer?"
"The inference was very obvious.
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