His overcoat and under coat had been torn open, hastily, if not with absolute violence; the lining of one trousers pocket was pulled out; there were evidences that his waistcoat had been unbuttoned and its inside searched: everything seemed to indicate that the murderer had also been a robber.
"He's not been dead very long," said the doctor, looking up.

"Certainly not more than three-quarters of an hour.

Strangled?
Yes!--and by somebody who has more than ordinary knowledge of how quickly a man may be killed in that way! Look how this cord is tied--no amateur did that." He turned back the neckcloth from the dead man's throat, and showed the others how the cord had been slipped round the neck in a running-knot and fastened tightly with a cunning twist.
"Whoever did this had done the same thing before--probably more than once," he continued.

"No man with that cord round his neck, tightly knotted like that, would have a chance--however free his hands might be.
He'd be dead before he could struggle.

Does no one know anything about this?
No more than that ?" he went on, when he had heard what Garthwaite could tell.