returned the electric lamp to his pocket and stood looking at me in
the semi-gloom. A constable stood on duty quite near to us, and
others guarded the archway and the doors to the dwellings. The
murmur of subdued voices echoed hollowly in the wells of the
staircases, and a constant excited murmur proceeded from the crowd
at the entrance. No pressmen had yet been admitted, though numbers
of them were at the gates.

"It happened less than an hour ago," said Bristol. "The place was
much as you see it now, and from what I can gather there came the
sound of a shot and several people saw the dwarf fall through the
air and drop where he lies!"

The light was insufficient to show the expression upon the speaker's
face, but his voice told of a great wonder.

"It is a bit like an Indian conjuring trick," I said, looking up to
the sky above us; "who fired the shot?"

"So far," replied Bristol, "I have failed to find out; but there's
a bullet in the thing's head. He was dead before he reached the
pavement."

"Did no one see the flash of the pistol?"

"No one that I have got hold of yet. Of course this kind of
evidence is very unreliable; these people regularly go out of their
way to mislead the police."

"You think the body may have been carried here from somewhere else?"