around the suite, straightening things and trying
to be of service. He looked at Sidney Prale often; it was plain to be
seen that Prale was Murk's kind of man.

There came a knock at the door.

"See who it is, Murk," Sidney Prale said.

He did not even look up from the paper he was reading. He supposed it
was some hotel employee. Murk stalked across to the door and threw it
open. Two men stood there. Murk flinched when he saw them. He did not
know either of them, but he knew them immediately for what they were.
Murk was a man of experience.

"Mr. Prale in?" one of them asked.

"Yes, sir."

Without asking permission, the two men stepped inside, and one of them
closed the door. Prale dropped the newspaper and turned around to face
them.

"Are you Sidney Prale?" one of them asked.

"I am."

"You are under arrest, Mr. Prale."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Under arrest," I said. "You know your rights, perhaps, so you need not
talk unless you wish to do so."

"You are officers?"

They showed their shields.

"Straight from headquarters," one of them replied. "We want to take a
look around your room while we are here."

"Suppose," said Sidney Prale, "that you tell me, first, why I am under
arrest? Of what crime am I accused?"

"You are charged with murder."

"Murder? What crazy joke is this?" Prale cried. "And what particular
person am I accused of murdering?"

"You are charged with the murder of Mr. Rufus Shepley," the detective
replied.

CHAPTER VII

EVIDENCE

Many times in his life, Sidney Prale had been greatly surprised,
astonished, shocked. But never had he experienced such a feeling as he
did at this bald announcement of a police detective.

The statement was like a blow between the eyes. Prale stared at the two
detectives for an instant, his face flushed, and then he began to laugh.

"It isn't a laughing matter, Mr. Prale," one of the detectives told him.

"Pardon me, but it is so utterly preposterous," Prale replied. "I fail
to see how I can be accused of such a crime. I am not a cut-throat, and
Rufus Shepley was a man I met on shipboard casually, and have seen him
only once since."

"You can do your talking at headquarters, Mr. Prale," the officer said.
"I'll have to ask you to come along with us. I'll leave my partner here
to look through your rooms."

"The sooner I get to headquarters, the sooner this thing will be
straightened out," Prale said. "Murk, you will remain here in t