'
Said I proudly, 'I am. For the window is open,' I said. Oh, you
incomparable ass!"
He understood now. It explained so much that had been puzzling
him.
He tried to put himself in Cayley's place--Cayley, when Antony
had first discovered him, hammering at the door and crying, "Let
me in!" Whatever had happened inside the office, whoever had
killed Robert, Cayley knew all about it, and knew that Mark was
not inside, and had not escaped by the window. But it was
necessary to Cayley's plans--to Mark's plans if they were acting
in concert--that he should be thought so to have escaped. At
some time, then, while he was hammering (the key in his pocket)
at the locked door, he must suddenly have remembered--with what a
shock!--that a mistake had been made. A window had not been left
open!
Probably it would just have been a horrible doubt at first. Was
the office window open? Surely it was open! Was it? .... Would
he have time now to unlock the door, slip in, open the French
windows and slip out again? No. At any moment the servants
might come.
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