For the moment he left them
undisturbed. They would come back to him later when he wanted
them.
He laughed suddenly, and lit his pipe.
"I was wanting a new profession," he thought, "and now I've found
it. Antony Gillingham, our own private sleuthhound. I shall
begin to-day."
Whatever Antony Gillingham's other qualifications for his new
profession, he had at any rate a brain which worked clearly and
quickly. And this clear brain of his had already told him that
he was the only person in the house at that moment who was
unhandicapped in the search for truth. The inspector had arrived
in it to find a man dead and a man missing. It was extremely
probable, no doubt, that the missing man had shot the dead man.
But it was more than extremely probable, it was almost certain
that the Inspector would start with the idea that this extremely
probable solution was the one true solution, and that, in
consequence, he would be less disposed to consider without
prejudice any other solution. As regards all the rest of them
--Cayley, the guests, the servants--they also were prejudiced; in
favour of Mark (or possibly, for all he knew, against Mark); in
favour of, or against, each other; they had formed some previous
opinion, from what had been said that morning, of the sort of man
Robert was.
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