ly occupied by a man and a woman. Everything quite obviously
belonged to the regular tenant. Morgan could find nothing of a
suspicious nature, although he had particularly looked for
correspondence which might in some indefinite way connect this
tenant with the happenings of the night before.

The bathroom was visited next. Outside of the usual toilet articles
and harmless medical "first aids" in the cabinet, the room was bare.

The final step was a close examination of the front room. Here the
blood spot stood out dark and forbidding in the light of the
afternoon sun. Beyond the fact that the shot had taken effect, it
told nothing. Morgan stood in thought with his eyes resting upon the
brick fireplace. Suddenly the descending sun threw its rays farther
into the room and rested on a bright spot at the side of the
fireplace. It looked odd to Morgan and he approached it. What he
found was a flattened bullet, which had been held in place by
slightly embedding itself in the rough surface of the brick. As
evidence it had small value outside of confirming the fact that a
shot had been actually fired in this apartment.

Finding nothing else with a bearing on the case, Morgan started to
leave. At the doorway to the entrance hall, he stopped and turned to
take one last look around the room in the hope that something might
suggest itself. As he stood making this last survey, his eye caught
a faint point of light under a cabinet in a corner. Instantly he
returned to the room, and stooping down, ran his hand under the
cabinet. His fingers seized on a small object, which proved to be a
gold cuff button. As he turned it over in his hand he found the
initial "M" deeply engraved in the heavy gold.

Remembering that he had learned from the report in his pocket that
the name of the tenant of this apartment was Ames, this discovery
immediately assumed great importance, so Morgan carefully placed the
cuff button in a vest pocket.

Encouraged by his find, Morgan made another careful examination of
the room. The flattened bullet and the cuff button, revealed by
friendly rays of sunlight, seemed to be all that he could find.

CHAPTER IV

THE APARTMENT ACROSS THE HALL

After replacing the padlock and snapping it closed, Morgan pressed
the electric button of the apartment across the hall. Footsteps
sounded in immediate response, and the next moment the door was
furtively opened. Morgan, who by that time was leaning carelessly