"Some people have come on from the theatres, and men from the clubs. The streets are full of it—and evening papers have brought out midnight editions which are selling like hot cakes."
"And do they say that Luke has killed Philip de Mountford?"
"No"—with some hesitation—"they don't say that."
"But they hint at it."
"Newspaper tittle-tattle."
"How much is actual fact?"
"I understand," he explained, "that at nine o'clock or thereabouts two men in evening dress hailed a passing taxicab just outside the Lyric Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue and told the chauffeur to drive to Hyde Park corner, just by the railings of the Green Park. The driver drew up there and one of the two men got out. As he reclosed the door of the cab he leaned toward the interior and said cheerfully, "S'long old man. See you to-morrow." Then he told the chauffeur to drive on to 1 Cromwell Road opposite the museum, and turning on his heel disappeared in the fog. When the chauffeur drew up for the second time no one alighted from the cab. So he got down from his box and opened the door."
"The other man," murmured Louisa vaguely, "was in the cab—dead!"
"That's about it."
"With his throat pierced from ear to ear by a sharp instrument which might have been a skewer."