Godfrey.

"It looks like curtain-cord," Godfrey said, and made a little tour of
the room. "Ah!" he added, after a moment, from the door opening into
the grounds. "See here!"

He was holding up the end of the cord by which the curtains covering
the upper part of the double doors were controlled.

"You were right, Mr. Coroner," he said, "in thinking that the murderer
entered by this door, for he stopped here and cut off a piece of this
cord before going on into the room."

"Then he must also have stopped to make it into a noose," remarked
Goldberger. "If he did that, he was certainly a cool customer. It's a
wonder his victim didn't hear the noise he made."

"Making a knot isn't a noisy operation," Godfrey pointed out;
"besides, the back of the chair was toward the door. And then, of
course, it's possible his victim _did_ hear him."

"But then he would have jumped from the chair," objected Simmonds.

"Not necessarily. Suppose you were sitting there, and heard a noise,
and looked around and saw me standing here, you wouldn't jump from the
chair, would you?"

"No; I'd have no reason to jump from you."

"Perhaps Vaughan thought he had no reason to jump from the man _he_