The blood-stains
in the room and also on the stick are very slight. It is probable
that he imagined his crime to be a bloodless one, and hoped that
if the body were consumed it would hide all traces of the method
of his death -- traces which for some reason must have pointed
to him. Is all this not obvious?"
"It strikes me, my good Lestrade, as being just a trifle too
obvious," said Holmes. "You do not add imagination to your
other great qualities; but if you could for one moment put
yourself in the place of this young man, would you choose the
very night after the will had been made to commit your crime?
Would it not seem dangerous to you to make so very close a
relation between the two incidents? Again, would you choose
an occasion when you are known to be in the house, when a servant
has let you in? And, finally, would you take the great pains
to conceal the body and yet leave your own stick as a sign
that you were the criminal? Confess, Lestrade, that all this
is very unlikely."
"As to the stick, Mr. Holmes, you know as well as I do that
a criminal is often flurried and does things which a cool man
would avoid.
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