"Huh!" said Grant disgustedly. "Some expert!" and Williams smiled.

"Well, he did say there was nothing distinctive about it," he reminded.

And then he explained that before sending the revolver to the experts he had tested it for fingerprints, and finding quite a lot had had them photographed. He was now waiting, for the prints.

"Good man," said Grant, and went in to see the superintendent, carrying the Print of the dead man's fingertips with him. He gave Barker a précis of the day's events without adducing any theories about foreigners beyond remarking that it was a very un-English crime.

"Precious unproductive kind of clues we've got," said Barker. "All except the dagger, and that's more like something out of a book than part of an honest-to-goodness crime."

"My sentiments exactly," said Grant. I wonder how many people will be in the Woffington queue tonight, he added irrelevantly.

The knowledge of how Barker would have speculated on this fascinating question was lost forever to mankind by the entrance of Williams.

"Thee revolver prints, sir," he said succinctly, and laid them on the table. Grant picked them up with no great enthusiasm and compared them with the prints he had absentmindedly been carrying about. After a short time he stiffened to sudden interest as a pointer stiffens. There were five distinct prints and many incomplete ones, but neither the good prints nor the broken ones had been made by the dead man. Attached to the prints was a report from the fingerprint department. There was no trace of these prints in their records.

Back in his room Grant sat and thought. What did it mean, and of what value was the knowledge? Did the revolver not belong to the dead man? Borrowed, perhaps? But even if it had been borrowed there would surely have been some indication that the dead man had had it in his possession.