The window of the room was open, and beside the window, all huddled up, lay the body of a man in his nightdress.

He was quite dead, and had been for some time, for his limbs were rigid and cold.

When we turned him over, the Boots recognized him at once as being the same gentleman who had engaged the room under the name of Joseph Stangerson.

The cause of death was a deep stab in the left side, which must have penetrated the heart.

And now comes the strangest part of the affair.