"It appears that she had taken cold by her loitering and soon after
reaching her destination became so ill that she had to keep her bed, and
it was only on her recovery a few days ago that she heard what had
happened here that night. Directly she could get away she came over and
told her story to us."
"A pity she could not have come before," Morriston remarked as the chief
constable paused. "Her evidence is highly important, disposing as it does
of the mystery of the locked door."
"Yes," Major Freeman agreed, "and also of the suicide theory. The
question now is--who was the person who was seen descending from
the window?"
"Could this girl tell whether it was a man or a woman?" The question came
from Henshaw, who had hitherto kept silent.
"She thinks it was a man," Major Freeman answered, "but could not swear
to it. The fact of the object being close to the wall made it almost
impossible in the imperfect light to distinguish plainly. But I think we
may take it that it was a man. The feat could be hardly one a woman would
undertake."
"No," Gifford agreed. "And there would seem little chance of identifying
the person.
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