human
It will show you, the doctor said,
gpt
added the old gentleman, suddenly,
human
I'm not sure that there's been one now!
gpt
Why? How could it be anything else but suicide? Had they not got the pistol--Miles's own pistol? Had not Dr. Mowbray himself said that the bullet extracted fitted the one empty cartridge found in the revolver? Besides, Miles had not denied shooting himself when asked by Edmonstone what he had done.
human
But did he admit that he had shot himself?
gpt
No, he did not.
human
Was his manner, up to the last, that of a man who had deliberately shot himself?
gpt
No, it was not. It might have been an accident.
human
Neither the one nor the other, said the doctor.
gpt
Now I'll tell you two something that I shall make public presently: a man cannot point a pistol at himself from a greater distance than two feet at the outside; but this shot was fired at three times that range!
human
How can you tell, sir?
gpt
The clothes are not singed; the hole might have been made by a drill, it was so clean.
human
You think it has been--murder?
gpt
Personally, I am convinced of it. We shall say all we know, and get an adjournment. At the adjourned inquest Colonel Bristo will attend, and tell us his relations with the dead man, who, it appears, had no other friend in the country; but to-day that is not absolutely necessary, and I shall explain his absence myself. Meanwhile, detectives will be sent down, and will find out nothing at all, and the affair will end in a verdict against some person or persons unknown, at best.