This strange streak in the floor, with
its weird curves and spirals, could have been made only by the
murderer. But how? With what instrument? There was the riddle
which must be solved.
And now Muller, making another careful examination of the floor,
found something else. It was something that might be utterly
unimportant or might be of great value. It was a tiny bit of
hardened lacquer which he found on the floor beside one of the legs
of the desk. It was rounded out, with sharp edges, and coloured
grey with a tiny zigzag of yellow on its surface. Muller lifted it
carefully and looked at it keenly. This tiny bit of lacquer had
evidently been knocked off from some convex object, but it was
impossible to tell at the moment just what sort of an object it
might have been. There are so many different things which are
customarily covered with lacquer. However, further examination
brought him down to a narrower range of subjects. For on the inside
of the lacquer he found a shred of reddish wood fibre. It must have
been a wooden object, therefore, from which the lacquer came, and
the wood had been of reddish tinge.
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