e half score of quiet and
sternfaced men who were searching the hotel everywhere. At the end of an
hour there was no kind of trace of anything that would lead to the
whereabouts of the missing men. Colonel Berrington came to the head of
the grand stairway presently holding a little round object in his hand.

"I have found this," he said. "It is a button with the initials R. P. H.
on it, evidently a button from the uniform of one of the servants. As
there is a scrap of cloth attached to it, the button has evidently been
wrenched off, which points to a struggle having taken place. Don't you
feel inclined to agree with me, Inspector?"

On the whole Inspector Field was inclined to agree. Would Colonel
Berrington be so good as to take him to the exact spot where the button
was found? The button had been discovered on the first landing, and had
lodged on the edge of the parquet flooring on the red carpet. They were
very thick carpets, as befitted the character of the hotel.

Inspector Field bent down and fumbled on the floor. He had touched a
patch of something wet. When he rose his fingers were red as if the dye
had come out of the carpet.

"Blood," he said, as if in answer to Berrington's interrogative glance.
"Very stupid of us not to think of something like this before. But these
carpets are so thick and of so dark a colour. Beyond doubt some deed of
violence has taken place here. See."

The inspector smeared his hand further along the carpet. The red patch
was very large. A little further along the wall there were other
patches, and there was the mark of a blood-stained hand on the handle of
a door which proved to be locked.

"Is anybody occupying this room at present?" Field asked a hotel
servant.

"Not exactly, sir," the man replied. "That door gives on to one of the
finest suites in the hotel. It is rented by the Rajah of Ahbad. His
Highness is not here at present, but he comes and goes as he likes. He
keeps the keys himself, and the door is only opened by his steward, who
comes along a day or two before his royal master."

"All the same they are going to be opened now," said Field grimly. "Go
and tell the manager that I want him here at once. I suppose there are
master keys to this."

But there were no master keys to the Royal suite; the locks had been
selected by the Rajah himself. It was an hour or more later before a
locksmith from Milner's managed to open the door. They were thick doors,
sheet lined, a