I looked,
and there, sure enough, was the bullet mark!"
"But how came the window to be shut and fastened?"
"The woman's first instinct would be to shut and fasten the window.
But, halloa! what is this?"
It was a lady's hand-bag which stood upon the study table --
a trim little hand-bag of crocodile-skin and silver. Holmes
opened it and turned the contents out. There were twenty
fifty-pound notes of the Bank of England, held together by an
india-rubber band -- nothing else.
"This must be preserved, for it will figure in the trial," said
Holmes, as he handed the bag with its contents to the inspector.
"It is now necessary that we should try to throw some light upon
this third bullet, which has clearly, from the splintering of
the wood, been fired from inside the room. I should like to see
Mrs. King, the cook, again. You said, Mrs. King, that you were
awakened by a LOUD explosion. When you said that, did you mean
that it seemed to you to be louder than the second one?"
"Well, sir, it wakened me from my sleep, and so it is hard to judge.
But it did seem very loud."
"You don't think that it might have been two shots fired almost
at the same instant?"
"I am sure I couldn't say, sir.
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