No one in the hotel thought anything of Bolton's absence, since he had hinted at an early departure, although the chamber-maid considered it strange that no one had seen him leave the hotel.

The landlord obeyed Bolton's instructions and sent the case, in charge of a trustworthy man, to Brefort across the river.

There a lorry was procured, and the case was taken to Gartley, where it arrived at three in the afternoon.

It was then that Professor Braddock, in opening the case, discovered the body of his ill-fated assistant, rigid in death, and with a red window cord tightly bound round the throat of the corpse.

At once, said the newspapers, the Professor sent for the police, and later insisted that the smartest Scotland Yard detectives should come down to elucidate the mystery.