iend a short time afterwards, and took
a hansom to his office. His newspaper at once issued a special edition,
giving an interview between their representative and Mr. James B.
Coulson, a personal friend of the murdered man. It was, after all,
something of a scoop, for not one of the other passengers had been found
who was in a position to say anything at all about him. The immediate
effect of the interview, however, was to procure for Mr. Coulson a
somewhat bewildering succession of callers. The first to arrive was a
gentleman who introduced himself as Mr. Jacks, and whose card, sent
back at first, was retendered in a sealed envelope with Scotland Yard
scrawled across the back of it. Mr. Coulson, who was in the act of
changing his clothes, interviewed Mr. Jacks in his chamber.

"Mr. Coulson," the Inspector said, "I am visiting you on behalf of
Scotland Yard. We understand that you had some acquaintance with Mr.
Hamilton Fynes, and we hope that you will answer a few questions for
us."

Mr. Coulson sat down upon a trunk with his hairbrushes in his hand.

"Well," he declared, "you detectives do get to know things, don't you?"

"Nothing so remarkable in that, Mr. Coulson," Inspector Jacks remarked
pleasantly. "A newspaper man had been before me, I see."

Mr. Coulson nodded.

"That's so," he admitted. "Seems to me I may have been a bit indiscreet
in talking so much to that young reporter. I have just read his account
of my interview, and he's got it pat, word by word. Now, Mr. Jacks, if
you'll just invest a halfpenny in that newspaper, you don't need to ask
me any questions. That young man had a kind of pleasant way with him,
and I told him all I knew."

"Just so, Mr. Coulson," the Inspector answered. "At the same time
nothing that you told him throws any light at all upon the circumstances
which led to the poor fellow's death."

"That," Mr. Coulson declared, "is not my fault. What I don't know I
can't tell you."

"You were acquainted with Mr. Fynes some years ago?" the Inspector
asked. "Can you tell me what business he was in then?"

"Same as now, for anything I know," Mr. Coulson answered. "He was a
clerk in one of the Government offices at Washington."

"Government offices," Inspector Jacks repeated. "Have you any idea what
department?"

Mr. Coulson was not sure.

"It may have been the Excise Office," he remarked thoughtfully. "I did
hear, but I never took any particular notice."

"Did you ever form any