The Professor told his story as simply as possible, outlining his actions and repeating the Black Sailor’s story, up to the moment when it had occurred to him that his only chance of escape was to produce an explosion. “It could not make things any worse, as far as I was concerned,” he said. “I was bound to be overcome by the gas in a very few minutes. But I had to wait until I judged the mixture of gas and air to be correct, and I was very doubtful whether this would take place before I became unconscious. I guessed that I should feel the force of the explosion least by lying on the floor, and, as it proved, that saved me. Morlandson, who was standing up when the explosion took place, bore the full brunt of it, and it killed him.”

“Well, it’s a most extraordinary case altogether,” replied Hanslet, as the Professor concluded his account. “This man Morlandson, or Ludgrove as we called him, displayed the most amazing ingenuity, and there was no reason why we should ever have suspected him, any more than we suspected anybody else in the neighbourhood. And the way he gradually concentrated our attention on poor Copperdock was masterly.