"
Mr. Anstey sat down, and as Mr. Hornby left the witness-box, mopping the
perspiration from his forehead, the next witness was called.
"Inspector Sanderson!"
The dapper police officer stepped briskly into the box, and having been
duly sworn, faced the prosecuting counsel with the air of a man who was
prepared for any contingency.
"Do you remember," said Sir Hector, after the usual preliminaries had
been gone through, "what occurred on the morning of the tenth of March?"
"Yes. A note was handed to me at the station at 10.23 a.m. It was from
Mr. John Hornby, and stated that a robbery had occurred at his premises
in St. Mary Axe. I went to the premises and arrived there at 10.31 a.m.
There I saw the prosecutor, Mr. John Hornby, who told me that a parcel
of diamonds had been stolen from the safe. At his request I examined the
safe. There were no signs of its having been forced open; the locks
seemed to be quite uninjured and in good order. Inside the safe, on the
bottom, I found two good-sized drops of blood, and a slip of paper with
pencil-writing on it. The paper bore two blood-smears and a print of a
human thumb in blood."
"Is this the paper?" asked the counsel, passing a small slip across to
the witness.
"Yes," replied the inspector, after a brief glance at the document.
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