nd, turning quickly to a table, spread out the charred
paper flat. After one quick glance, Ford ran to the fireplace, and,
seizing a handfull of the spills, began rapidly to unroll them. Then he
turned to Cuthbert and, without speaking, showed him the charred
spill. It was a scrap torn from the front page of a newspaper. The
half-obliterated words at which Ford pointed were DALESVILLE COUR ----

"His torn paper!" said Ford. "The DALESVILLE COURIER. Pearsall HAS been
in this hotel!" He handed another spill to Cuthbert.

"From that one," said Ford, "we get the date, December 3. Allowing three
weeks for the newspaper to reach London, Pearsall must have seen it
just three weeks ago, just when Miss Dale says he was in the hotel. The
landlord has lied to me."

Ford rang for a waiter, and told him to ask Mr. Gerridge to come to the
smoking-room.

As Cuthbert was leaving it, Gerridge was entering it, and Ford was
saying:

"It seems you've been lying to the police and to me. Unless you desire
to be an accessory to a murder, You had better talk quick!"

An hour later Ford passed slowly through Sowell Street in a taxicab,
and, finding Cuthbert on guard, signalled him to follow. In Wimpole
Street the cab drew up to the curb, and Cuthbert entered it.

"I have found Pearsall," said Ford. "He is in No. 40 with Prothero."

He then related to Cuthbert what had happened. Gerridge had explained
that when the Police called, his first thought was to protect the good
name of his hotel. He had denied any knowledge of Pearsall only because
he no longer was a guest, and, as he supposed Pearsall had passed out
of his life, he saw no reason, why, through an arrest and a scandal, his
hotel should be involved. Believing Ford to be in the secret service of
the police, he was now only too anxious to clear himself of suspicion by
telling all he knew. It was but little. Pearsall and his niece had been
at the hotel for three days. During that time the niece, who appeared
to be an invalid, remained in her room. On the evening of the third
day, while Pearsall was absent, a call from him had come for her by
telephone, on receiving which Miss Dale had at once left the hotel,
apparently in great agitation. That night she did not return, but in the
morning Pearsall came to collect his and her luggage and to settle his
account. He explained that a woman relative living at the Langham Hotel
had been taken suddenly ill, and had sent for him and his niece