ior members of the mission came downstairs with a note which he asked
me to send at once by a constable to Mr. Talbot."

"You are quite sure he was one of the members of the mission?" said
Brett.

"Perfectly certain. I have seen him every previous night for nearly a
month, as the gentleman often went out late to the Turkish Embassy, and
elsewhere. I sent the note, as requested, and Mr. Talbot came back with
the constable in about twenty minutes. Mr. Talbot went upstairs
accompanied by Hussein; Hussein came down, was searched, went down to
the kitchen, brought up more coffee, and never appeared again. The next
time I saw him was about noon yesterday, when we broke open the door,
and found his dead body. At 11.25, Mr. Talbot, accompanied by the one
whom Inspector Walters has described as the spokesman of the strangers,
came down the stairs. Mr. Talbot looked somewhat puzzled, but not
specially worried, and submitted himself to the searching operation as
usual. The other man seemed to be surprised by this proceeding, but
offered no objection when his turn came, and said something laughingly
in French to Mr. Talbot, when he had to take his boots off. The two
gentlemen went outside and called a cab. Mr. Talbot got in, and the
constable at the door heard the foreigner tell the driver to go to the
Carlton Hotel. He repeated the address twice, so as to make sure the man
would make no mistake.

"Then they drove off, and there was no further incident to report until
five minutes past twelve, when the other two foreigners came downstairs.
Then we had a bit of a job. They knew no English, and one of our men,
who could speak French, found that they did not understand that
language. However, at last in dumb show we got them to perceive that
everybody who came downstairs had to be searched. They submitted at
once, and I took special care that the investigation was complete. There
was nothing upon them to arouse the slightest suspicion, no weapons of
any sort beyond a small pocket-knife carried by one man, and not much
in the way of either papers or money. Before going out one of them
produced a small card on which was written, 'Carlton Hotel.'

"I took it that this was their residence, so I instructed a constable to
see them into a cab and tell the driver where to take them. I also
showed them how much money to give the cabman. None of the gentlemen
upstairs put in an appearance, nor did I hear them retire to rest. To
make quite s