“Colonel Melrose, would you be so extremely obliging as to sit down in this chair a minute. I thank you. Now M. le docteur, will you kindly indicate to me the exact position of the dagger?”
I did so, whilst the little man stood in the doorway.
“The hilt of the dagger was plainly visible from the door then. Both you and Parker could see it at once?”
“Yes.”
Poirot went next to the window.
“The electric light was on, of course, when you discovered the body?” he asked over his shoulder.
I assented, and joined him where he was studying the marks on the windowsill.
“The rubber studs are the same pattern as those in Captain Paton’s shoes,” he said quietly.
Then he came back once more to the middle of the room. His eye travelled round, searching everything in the room with a quick, trained glance.
“Are you a man of good observation. Doctor Sheppard?” he asked at last.
“I think so,” I said, surprised.
“There was a fire in the grate, I see. When you broke the door down and found Mr. Ackroyd dead, how was the fire? Was it low?”
I gave a vexed laugh. “I—I really can’t say. I didn’t notice. Perhaps Mr. Raymond or Major Blunt—”