bullet the other morning I noticed some peculiar rifling marks on it; and the rifling in this gun here looks to me as though it would match up with the marks on the bullet. I'm not certain. I'd like to look at this barrel through my helixometer.[1]"
"But you believe it's the gun?" insisted Markham.
"I couldn't say, but I think so. I might be wrong."
"Very good, Captain. Take it along, and call me the minute you've inspected it thoroughly."
"It's the gun, all right," asserted Heath, when Hagedorn had gone. "I know that bird. He wouldn't 've said as much as he did if he hadn't been sure. . . . Whose gun is it, sir?"
"I'll answer you presently." Markham was still battling against the truth—withholding, even from himself, his pronouncement of the Major's guilt until every loop-hole of doubt should be closed. "I want to hear from Stitt before I say anything. I sent him to look over Benson and Benson's books. He'll be here any moment."
After a wait of a quarter of an hour, during which time Markham attempted to busy himself with other matters, Stitt came in. He said a sombre good-morning to the District Attorney and Heath; then, catching sight of Vance, smiled appreciatively.
"That was a good tip you gave me. You had the dope. If you'd kept Major Benson away longer, I could have done more. While he was there he was watching me every minute."
- ↑ A helixometer, I learned later, is an instrument that makes it possible to examine every portion of the inside of a gun's barrel through a microscope.
