rs to Weldon and
Corby station, by changing at Kettering, and the distance '1 mile' would
bring the traveller to the village of Great Weldon."

"Royal Pier sounds like the name of a hotel," I remarked.

"No doubt. But there are a good many Royal Pier hotels in England, so
there we are confronted with a difficulty. To what 6.11 refers I cannot
conceive, while Harpur Street, which is off Theobalds Road, I visited
yesterday, but I find there are no such numbers as 248 or 392. The next
line is unintelligible, but if I read the last line aright it is an
appointment made beneath the clock at Charing Cross Station at six."

I drew hard at my pipe. That strange document presented to me a very
complicated puzzle.

"It seems to refer to some district in Northamptonshire, yet he was
attacked coming up from Guildford, on the South Western line!" Vera
remarked. "Is your only suspicion based upon the fact of the injured
man's nationality, Ray?"

"That, combined with other circumstances," he replied. "As soon as I
read the first announcement in the papers, I went down to Guildford and
there ascertained that the injured man arrived at the Angel Hotel in a
motor-car about one o'clock. The chauffeur remarked to the ostler that
he had come up from the south coast, and after having a drink he started
off on the return journey. Steinheim had luncheon upstairs, took his
coffee and cigarette in the little room below, and idled about, telling
the lady bookkeeper of the hotel that he was expecting a friend. The
friend in question did not, however, arrive, therefore he walked down to
the station, and left at 4.13 for London. A porter remembers seeing him
alone in the compartment, and it seems quite certain that, on starting
from Guildford, he was still alone. The train was an express, and timed
not to stop anywhere from Guildford to Vauxhall, but, from the railway
officials, I find that it was pulled up by signal about a mile from
Esher, in which time he may have been joined by some one from the
adjoining compartment."

"Then your theory is that the man who attacked this mysterious German
got back again to his carriage, and alighted at Vauxhall," I said.

"I certainly think so, for the driver says that outside Clapham Junction
the signals were against him, and he pulled up."

"It's a pity he has not sufficiently recovered to make any statement."

Ray smiled grimly.

"He would never do that, I think," he said. "It is to his advantage t