ell, sir. As his man left the day before yesterday, my wife went up to
Sir Digby's flat as usual this morning about eight, and put him his early
cup of tea outside his door. But when she went in again she found he had
not taken it into his room. She believed him to be asleep, so not till
ten o'clock did she go into the sitting-room to draw up the blinds, when,
to her horror, she found a young lady, a perfect stranger, lying
stretched on the floor there! She rushed down and told me, and I went up.
I found that Sir Digby's bed hadn't been slept in, and that though the
poor girl was unconscious, she was still breathing. So I at once called
in the constable on point duty at the corner of Collingham Road, and he
'phoned to the police station."

"But the girl--is she dead?" I inquired quickly.

"I don't know, sir. You'd better go upstairs. There's an inspector, two
plain-clothes men, and a doctor up there."

He took me up in the lift, and a few moments later I stood beside Digby's
bed, whereon the men had laid the inanimate form of a well-dressed girl
whom I judged to be about twenty-two, whose dark hair, unbound, lay in
disorder upon the pillow. The face, white as marble, was handsome and
clean cut, but upon it, alas! was the ashen hue of death, the pale lips
slightly parted as though in a half-sarcastic smile.

The doctor was bending over her making his examination.

I looked upon her for a moment, but it was a countenance which I had
never seen before. Digby had many lady friends, but I had never seen her
among them. She was a perfect stranger.

Her gown was of dark blue serge, smartly made, and beneath her coat she
wore a cream silk blouse with deep sailor collar open at the neck, and a
soft flowing bow of turquoise blue. This, however, had been disarranged
by the doctor in opening her blouse to listen to her breathing, and I saw
that upon it was a small crimson stain.

Yes, she was remarkably good-looking, without a doubt.

When I announced myself as an intimate friend of Sir Digby Kemsley, the
inspector at once took me into the adjoining room and began to eagerly
question me.

With him I was perfectly frank; but I said nothing regarding my second
visit there in the night.

My gravest concern was the whereabouts of my friend.

"This is a very curious case, Mr. Royle," declared the inspector. "The
C.I.D. men have established one fact--that another woman was with the
stranger here in the early hours of this mor