The discovery of the revolver in Herman Isaacstein’s suitcase makes a concealed weapon look like decisive evidence against him in Prince Michael’s murder. Yet the scene’s importance lies in its double turn: M. Lemoine quietly removes the gun before the suitcase reaches Isaacstein, and Superintendent Battle later learns that the weapon has nevertheless been found there. What seems to close the case instead sharpens the question of who has arranged the evidence and why.

The weapon hidden in the luggage

At Chimneys, M. Lemoine searches Isaacstein’s suitcase while Virginia Revel and Bill Eversleigh are present. Among the ordinary contents—an expensive bottle, silk pyjamas, and socks—he finds a heavy revolver wrapped inside what looks like silk underwear. Bill gives a slight exclamation; Virginia says she can hear the approaching car. The weapon’s concealment among personal clothing transforms luggage from a private container into a possible instrument of accusation.

The timing makes the discovery urgent. Isaacstein is about to arrive in a large Lanchester limousine, so M. Lemoine repacks the case with lightning speed, wraps the revolver in his own silk handkerchief, and slips it into his pocket. He tells Bill to take the suitcase to the car and explain that it fell from the luggage cart, explicitly instructing him not to mention M. Lemoine. Bill carries out the handoff as the chauffeur slows at the drive. The revolver is therefore found during a private search but removed before Isaacstein receives his luggage, leaving the scene with a concealed intervention as well as a suspicious object.

A discovery reported to Battle

Later, Superintendent Battle returns to the car after a hurried exchange and abruptly tells Anthony Cade that the revolver has been found. Anthony is surprised and asks where; Battle answers that it was in Isaacstein’s suitcase. The news reverses the implication of M. Lemoine’s earlier action: although he took the revolver from the luggage in front of Virginia and Bill, the reported discovery places it in the very case from which it had been removed.

The apparent contradiction is central to the event. The evidence does not explain in this moment how the revolver came to be found in the suitcase after M. Lemoine pocketed it, nor does Battle disclose the circumstances of the later finding. Anthony calls the result impossible. Battle counters that nothing is impossible, acknowledging his surprise without accepting the event as an adequate explanation of the murder.

Battle’s unresolved interpretation

Anthony asks whether the discovery overturns Battle’s ideas. Battle replies slowly that it does not: the finding surprised him at first, but fits one of his theories. He does not reveal which theory, instead turning the conversation to another subject. His response withholds the meaning of the gun precisely when its apparent meaning seems most obvious. Isaacstein’s possession of a murder weapon would ordinarily look incriminating; Battle’s refusal to draw that conclusion signals that the clue must be read within a larger pattern.

The revolver’s movement through the episode—from hidden contents, to M. Lemoine’s pocket, to a report that it has been found in Isaacstein’s suitcase—makes custody itself part of the mystery. The object does not simply identify a suspect: its disputed placement raises the possibility of manipulation and forces the investigation to distinguish a weapon’s presence from the circumstances that put it there. Battle’s calm qualification preserves the case as an open inquiry rather than allowing a startling discovery to stand as proof.