This was no doubt a clew to the thread that held the letter, to be used in case of accidents.

In every other respect Mr.
D.had ridden out and ridden in like an ordinary sightseer.

Tom reported him to me as having dismounted at the hotel about two.

At half-past I locked my office door, nailed a card under the knocker with "not at home till to-morrow" written on it, and retired to a friend's house a mile or so out of the town for the rest of the day.
Mr.Davager, I have been since given to understand, left the Gatliffe Arms that same night with his best clothes on his back, and with all the valuable contents of his dressing-case in his pockets.

I am not in a condition to state whether he ever went through the form of asking for his bill or not; but I can positively testify that he never paid it, and that the effects left in his bedroom did not pay it either.