y the assassin from the
body of his victim. I knew it by the number.'

Tinkler thumped the desk with his hand in a state of uncontrolled
excitement. 'Then Mr Gabriel must be guilty,' he declared in his most
stentorian voice.

'Hush, if you please,' said Baltic, with a glance at the door. 'There
is no need to let your subordinates know what is not true.'

'What is not true, sir?'

'Precisely. I questioned Mr Gabriel on my return, and learned that he
had changed a twenty-pound note at The Derby Winner prior to his
departure for Germany. Mosk, the landlord, gave him the ten I traced to
Cook's and two fives. Hush, please! Mr Gabriel also told me that he had
lent the pistol to Mosk to protect himself from tramps when riding to
and from Southberry, so--'

'I see! I see!' roared Tinkler, purple with excitement. 'Mosk is the
guilty man!'

'Quite so,' rejoined Baltic, unmoved. 'You have hit upon the right man
at last.'

'So Bill Mosk shot Jentham. Oh, Lord! Damme! Why?'

'Don't swear, Mr Inspector, and I'll tell you. Mosk committed the murder
to get the two hundred pounds. I suspected Mosk almost from the
beginning. The man was almost always drunk and frequently in tears. I
found out while at The Derby Winner that he could not pay his rent
shortly before Jentham's murder. After the crime I learned from Sir
Harry Brace, the landlord, that Mosk had paid his rent. When Mr Gabriel
told me about the lending of the pistol and the changing of the note, I
went to Sir Harry's bank, and there, Mr Inspector, I discovered that the
bank-notes with which he paid his rent were those given by the bishop to
Jentham. On that evidence, on the evidence of the pistol, on the
evidence that Mosk was absent at Southberry on the night of the murder,
I ask you to obtain a warrant and arrest the man this afternoon.'

'I shall see a magistrate about it at once,' fussed Tinkler, tearing up
his now useless memoranda. 'Bill Mosk! Damme! Bill Mosk! I never should
have thought a drunken hound like him would have the pluck to do it.
Hang me if I did!'

'I don't call it pluck to shoot an unarmed man, Mr Inspector. It is
rather the act of a coward.'

'Coward or not, he must swing for it,' growled Tinkler. 'Mr Baltic, sir,
I am proud of you. You have done what I could not do myself. Take my
hand and my thanks, sir. Become a detective, sir, and learn our trade.
When you know our business you will do wonders, sir, wonders!'

In the same patronising wa