I'll show it you when I get to the Yard.

It has a very important bearing upon the case, and I think may lead us to the murderer." On the word "telegram" Tarling felt mechanically in his pockets for the wire which Mrs.Rider had given him from her daughter.

Now he took it out and read it again.

It had been handed in at the General Post Office at nine o'clock exactly.
"That's extraordinary, sir," Detective-Inspector Whiteside, sitting by his side, had overlooked the wire.
"What is extraordinary ?" asked Tarling with an air of surprise.
"I happened to see the signature to that wire--'Odette,' isn't it ?" said the Scotland Yard man.
"Yes," nodded Tarling.

"Why?
What is there extraordinary in that ?" "Well, sir," said Whiteside, "it's something of a coincidence that the telegram which was found in Mr.Lyne's desk, and making an appointment with him at a certain flat in the Edgware Road, was also signed 'Odette,' and," he bent forward, looking at the wire still in the astonished Tarling's hand, "and," he said in triumph, "it was handed in exactly at the same time as that!" An examination of the telegram at Scotland Yard left no doubt in the detective's mind that Whiteside had spoken nothing but the truth.