"How could the stranger see in the dark?" asked Browne, sarcastically.
"You forget," said Kind gravely, "that the candle was on the dressing-table. Sir Simon left it there, lighted, to shine through the red handkerchief, else what was the use of the handkerchief at all?"
"Yes, yes, I see that," said Herries, eagerly, "go on."
"The deed being done, the stranger waits in the room until daybreak, and then, knowing how Sir Simon was to leave the inn, put on the dead man's fur coat and boldly walked out with his plunder."
"Why didn't he escape again by the window?"
"Ah, that is one of the things which I wish to find out."
"And what about the incrimination of Herries?" asked the doctor, sceptically.
"Do you smoke cigarettes?" asked the Cheap-jack, turning suddenly on Herries.
"No. I haven't had a cigarette in my lips for quite three months. I hadn't the money to buy them, and so took to a pipe. Why?"
"Then the man who murdered Sir Simon entered the room--your room--to incriminate you. After emptying the pocket-book, he took that and the razor into your room. You were sound asleep, worn out, as I was told by Elspeth----"
"That's quite true, and old Gowrie gave me a glass of toddy to make me sleep the sounder."
"Oh," said Kind in a peculiar tone, and considered; after a time he went on, but did not say why he had made the exclamation. "Well, then, the murderer smeared your shirt sleeve, and left the razor on the bed, and the pocket-book under it. Then he retired to the death-room and waited till dawn. When ready to go, he locked the door of the room in which the dead man lay, and put the key in your room."
"But how do you know that he was in my room at all?" asked Herries, somewhat annoyed by all this theory.
"No," said Browne, "he never smoked in his life."
"In that case," Kind fished out the stump of a cigarette, "what do you make of that? I found it in your room, Mr. Herries."
The young man took the cigarette, which was burnt down half way, and examined it carefully. Then he smelt it.
"Periquette tobacco?" said he thoughtfully, "comes from France,--from Algiers,--from----"
"Tangiers," interposed Kind, taking the cigarette, "see,--this cigarette is marked 'Tangerian.' I have never seen one like that in England. It might have come from France, or from Algiers or Tangiers, but one thing we can be certain of, that the murderer came from foreign parts only a short time ago. A man doesn't keep cigarettes for months, unless he has a large quantity. The murderer may have had a quantity, but the chances are that he hadn't. In fact," Kind leaned back with the air of a man, who has made up his mind, "I believe that the man came from a ship and was a sailor, else why should he have displayed such activity in climbing up to a window."