the sink. This stain was
presumably the rust which usually gathers in a long unused sink or
basin.

The small maid's room off the kitchen had certainly not been in use.
Only the bare mattress was on the bed, and Morgan noticed that as
his own feet left imprints in the dust on the floor, it was not
likely that anyone else could have been in the room without leaving
similar traces.

Next he thoroughly searched the dining room. As this room usually
seems to be the favorite gathering point, both for the occupants of
a house and unbidden prowlers, Morgan's keen eyes examined every
detail of the floor and furnishings, including the drawers of the
sideboard. He immediately noticed that two of the chairs were
standing close to the table, while two others were moved slightly
back from the table as if people had been sitting in them. On the
floor under one of these chairs he found a few spots of cigarette
ashes. To Morgan's quick mind this carried a mental picture. Of
course, the police who had been in the apartment the night before
might have accidentally or intentionally moved the chairs, but he
was quite sure that under the circumstances not one of them would
have sat down to smoke a cigarette. At some time quite recently,
therefore, somebody, probably two persons, had sat at this dining
room table while conversing, or waiting for something.

This was further confirmed when Morgan, bending his knees and
lowering his body so as to bring his eyes on a level with the table,
studied the top in the reflected light. He saw that the dust on the
table top had been disturbed in front of the two chairs.
Furthermore, he discovered that the person who had not been smoking
had evidently rested a pair of clasped and sweaty hands on the table
top, as two parallel, greasy marks, made by the sides of the hands,
showed quite plainly. To Morgan, clasped and sweaty hands indicated
a possible state of nervousness. Either this had been the victim or
the chief plotter.

The dining room revealed nothing further to Morgan, but he felt that
he had made some progress in establishing the fact that at least two
people had quite recently been in this supposedly unoccupied
apartment.

Passing through the entrance hall, Morgan then examined the main
bedroom, which opened off of it. The bed had been dismantled, as in
the maid's room. An examination of the clothes closet, and the
drawers of the dresser and a chiffonier, showed that the room was
common