The man was waiting and shot him.

Then he got away through the window and left his gun behind him.

That's how I read it; for nothing else will fit the facts." The sergeant picked up a card which lay beside the dead man on the floor.

The initials V.V.and under them the number 341 were rudely scrawled in ink upon it.
"What's this ?" he asked, holding it up.
Barker looked at it with curiosity.

"I never noticed it before," he said.