custom."
"Well, in the name of the force I thank you. It seems a clear case,
as you put it, and there can''t be much difficulty over the bodies."
"I''ll show you a grim little bit of evidence," said Holmes, "and I am
sure Amberley himself never observed it. You''ll get results,
Inspector, by always putting yourself in the other fellow''s place,
and thinking what you would do yourself. It takes some imagination,
but it pays. Now, we will suppose that you were shut up in this
little room, had not two minutes to live, but wanted to get even with
the fiend who was probably mocking at you from the other side of the
door. What would you do?"
"Write a message."
"Exactly. You would like to tell people how you died. No use writing
on paper. That would be seen. If you wrote on the wall someone might
rest upon it. Now, look here! Just above the skirting is scribbled
with a purple indelible pencil: ''We we--'' That''s all."
"What do you make of that?"
"Well, it''s only a foot above the ground. The poor devil was on the
floor dying when he wrote it. He lost his senses before he could
finish."
"He was writing, ''We were murdered.''"
"That''s how I read it. If you find an indelible pencil on the body--"
"We''ll look out for it, you may be sure. But those securities?
Clearly there was no robbery at all. And yet he did possess those
bonds. We verified that."
"You may be sure he has them hidden in a safe place. When the whole
elopement had passed into history, he would suddenly discover them
and announce that the guilty couple had relented and sent back the
plunder or had dropped it on the way."
"You certainly seem to have met every difficulty," said the
inspector. "Of course, he was bound to call us in, but why he should