Four people were in the room when Richard Rangward was murdered, and a butler was coming and going during the dinner at which he died. However, when each one gave his eyewitness story, there were five different accounts of what had happened.

While it is rare that any two people see anything in exactly the same way, it could only be supposed in this case that there were a great many reasons why the witnesses did not wish to tell the whole truth. Strangely enough, old Mr Totterdell, who was rumoured to be blind, seemed to have seen the most clearly ...