"I found this on the floor just before you came in."
I handed Hume the blood-grimed collar.
"What is it? A collar?" As he turned it over he saw what I had seen. "Here's a name—'Philip Lawrence.'"
"I believe that Philip is his brother's name."
He looked at me with an unfriendly something in his glance.
"What do you infer from that?"
"I do not attempt to draw an inference."
"But your tone suggests. Do you suggest that when Philip Lawrence came to see his brother he took off his collar and left it behind him on the floor? Why?"
"It must have been soaked with blood."
"Then you do suggest that Philip Lawrence left his collar behind because it was soaked with blood."
"I suggest nothing. I say that I saw it on the floor and picked it up; that's all."
Hume stood up.
"What else have you found?"
I fenced with the question. I did not propose to speak of the gloves or the photograph, being conscious that Hume was prepared to make himself extremely disagreeable if occasion offered.
"I have not looked. The collar lay staring at me on the floor; I could not help but see it."
