to find out
what had become of the Secretary. They had been seen together at Euston
Station about half-past eight on the evening of the third. At two in the
morning Drebber had been found in the Brixton Road. The question which
confronted me was to find out how Stangerson had been employed between
8.30 and the time of the crime, and what had become of him afterwards.
I telegraphed to Liverpool, giving a description of the man, and warning
them to keep a watch upon the American boats. I then set to work calling
upon all the hotels and lodging-houses in the vicinity of Euston. You
see, I argued that if Drebber and his companion had become separated,
the natural course for the latter would be to put up somewhere in the
vicinity for the night, and then to hang about the station again next
morning."

"They would be likely to agree on some meeting-place beforehand,"
remarked Holmes.

"So it proved. I spent the whole of yesterday evening in making
enquiries entirely without avail. This morning I began very early, and
at eight o'clock I reached Halliday's Private Hotel, in Little George
Street. On my enquiry as to whether a Mr. Stangerson was living there,
they at once answered me in the affirmative.

"'No doubt you are the gentleman whom he was expecting,' they said. 'He
has been waiting for a gentleman for two days.'

"'Where is he now?' I asked.

"'He is upstairs in bed. He wished to be called at nine.'

"'I will go up and see him at once,' I said.

"It seemed to me that my sudden appearance might shake his nerves and
lead him to say something unguarded. The Boots volunteered to show me
the room: it was on the second floor, and there was a small corridor
leading up to it. The Boots pointed out the door to me, and was about to
go downstairs again when I saw something that made me feel sickish, in
spite of my twenty years' experience. From under the door there curled
a little red ribbon of blood, which had meandered across the passage and
formed a little pool along the skirting at the other side. I gave a cry,
which brought the Boots back. He nearly fainted when he saw it. The door
was locked on the inside, but we put our shoulders to it, and knocked it
in. The window of the room was open, and beside the window, all huddled
up, lay the body of a man in his nightdress. He was quite dead, and had
been for some time, for his limbs were rigid and cold. When we turned
him over, the Boots recognized him at once as being the