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Page 57
He got up and went into the adjoining room; looked round it,
pulled open a drawer or two, and, after shutting all the doors,
came back to the office.
"The sponge is there, and there are handkerchiefs in the top
right-hand drawer. Now then, Bill, just pretend you're Cayley.
You've just said something about water, and you get up."
Feeling that it was all a little uncanny, Bill, who had been
kneeling beside his friend, got up and walked out. Antony, as he
had done on the previous day, looked up after him as he went.
Bill turned into the room on the right, opened the drawer and got
the handkerchief, damped the sponge and came back.
"Well?" he said wonderingly.
Antony shook his head.
"It's all different," he said. "For one thing, you made a devil
of a noise and Cayley didn't."
"Perhaps you weren't listening when Cayley went in?"
"I wasn't. But I should have heard him if I could have heard
him, and I should have remembered afterwards."
"Perhaps Cayley shut the door after him."
"Wait!"
He pressed his hand over his eyes and thought. It wasn't
anything which he had heard, but something which he had seen. He
tried desperately hard to see it again .... He saw Cayley getting
up, opening the door from the office, leaving it open and walking
into the passage, turning to the door on the right, opening it,
going in, and then--What did his eyes see after that? If they
would only tell him again!
Suddenly he jumped up, his face alight. "Bill, I've got it!" he
cried.
"What?"
"The shadow on the wall! I was looking at the shadow on the
wall. Oh, ass, and ten times ass!"
Bill looked uncomprehendingly at him. Antony took his arm and
pointed to the wall of the passage.
"Look at the sunlight on it," he said. "That's because you've
left the door of that room open. The sun comes straight in
through the windows. Now, I'm going to shut the door. Look!
D'you see how the shadow moves across? That's what I saw the
shadow moving across as the door shut behind him. Bill, go in
and shut the door behind you quite naturally. Quick!"
Bill went out and Antony knelt, watching eagerly.
"I thought so!" he cried. "I knew it couldn't have been that."
"What happened?" said Bill, coming back.
"Just what you would expect. The sunlight came, and the shadow
moved back again all in one movement."
"And what happened yesterday?"
"The sunlight stayed there; and then the shadow came very slowly
back, and there was no noise of the door being shut."
Bill looked at him with startled eyes.
"By Jove! You mean that Cayley closed the door afterwards as an
afterthought and very quietly, so that you couldn't hear?"
Antony nodded.
"Yes. That explains why I was surprised afterwards when I went
into the room to find the door open behind me. You know how
those doors with springs on them close?"
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