human
By the way, he asked,
gpt
Why, stammered Tignol,
human
I--I don't think anything of it.
gpt
A rather interesting picture, smiled the other.
human
I've been studying it.
gpt
A purple sea, a blue moon, and a red fish--it looks crazy to me,
human
All the same, it has a bearing on our investigations.
gpt
Papa Tignol, he said seriously,
human
I have come to a conclusion about this crime, but I haven't verified it. I am now going to give myself an intellectual treat.
gpt
Wha-at?
human
I am going to prove practically whether my mind has grown rusty in the last two years.
gpt
I wish you'd say things so a plain man can understand 'em,
human
You understand that we are in private room Number Seven, don't you? On the other side of that wall is private room Number Six where a man has just been shot. We know that, don't we? But the man who shot him was in _this_ room, the little hair-brushing old maid saw the pistol thrown from _this_ window, the dog found footprints coming from _this_ room, the murderer went out through _that_ door into the alleyway and then into the street. He couldn't have gone into the corridor because the door was locked on the outside.
gpt
He might have gone into the corridor and locked the door after him,
human
He could have locked the door after him on the outside, not on the inside; but when we came in here, _it was locked on the inside_. No, sir, that door to the corridor has not been used this evening. The murderer bolted it on the inside when he entered from the alleyway and it wasn't unbolted until I unbolted it myself.
gpt
Then how, in Heaven's name----
human
Exactly! How could a man in this room kill a man in the next room? That is the problem I have been working at for an hour. And I believe I have solved it. Listen. Between these rooms is a solid wooden partition with no door in it--no passageway of any kind. Yet the man in there is dead, we're sure of that. The pistol was here, the bullet went there--somehow. _How_ did it go there? _Think_.
gpt
You mean it went _through the wall?_
human
Is there any other way?
gpt
But there is no hole--through the wall,
human
There is either a hole or a miracle. And between the two, I conclude that there _is_ a hole which we haven't found yet.
gpt
It might be back of that sideboard,
human
No man as clever as this fellow would have moved a heavy piece covered with plates and glasses. Besides, if the sideboard had been moved, there would be marks on the floor and there are none. Now you understand why I'm interested in that Japanese print.
gpt
You're mocking me, you've looked behind the picture.
human
On my honor, I have not been near the picture, I know nothing about the picture, but unless there is some flaw in my reasoning----
gpt
I'll give my tongue to the cats to eat! burst out the other,
human
When what?
gpt
When all he had to do for proof was to reach over and--and lift the darn thing off its nail.
human
I've thought of that, he drawled,
gpt
he cried.
human
It's true! There are _two_ holes.