On the other hand, the evidence of the detective
Kilsip went to show that no marks were visible as to anyone having
been at the window; and another thing which rendered Miss
Marchurst's story doubtful was the resemblance it had to a drama in
which she had frequently acted, called 'The Hidden Hand'. In the
last act of that drama poison was administered to one of the
characters in precisely the same manner, and though of course such a
thing might happen in real life, still in this case it was a highly
suspicious circumstance that a woman like Miss Marchurst, who had
frequently acted in the drama, should see the same thing actually
occur off the stage. Rejecting, then, as improbable the story of the
hidden hand, seeing that the evidence was strongly against it, the
next thing was to look into Miss Marchurst's past life and see if
she had any motive for committing the crime. Before doing so,
however, he would point out to them that Miss Marchurst was the only
person in the room when the crime was committed. The window in her
own room and one of the windows in Mrs Villiers' room were both
locked, and the open window had a table in front of it, so that
anyone entering would very probably knock it over, and thus awaken
the sleepers. On the other hand, no one could have entered in at the
door, because they would not have had time to escape before the
crime was discovered.
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