"Tear it up yourself," he said.
This Garth did without further remark, and looked at his friend.
"What do you intend to do now?" he asked.
"Continue this conversation for a few minutes longer. You were intimate with the dead man, Garth. Did you ever notice this cross?"
"I did not," said Garth, promptly, "or I should have asked what it meant. By Jove!" he added, with a start. "Then all that obliteration business must be nonsense."
"Of course," assented Fanks, smoothly. "I came to that conclusion long ago. Fellenger had no cross on his arm when he entered Tooley's Alley. It was tattooed that night by the negro."
"What makes you think that?"
"I found a few grains of gunpowder on the tablecloth of the room in which they were together; gunpowder is used in tattooing. Again, the arm, when Renshaw showed it to me, was raw, as though the operation had been done lately."
"But why should Gregory go to Tooley's Alley to be tattooed?"
"Tell me that, and the mystery of his death is at an end," said Fanks, significantly. "But I am certain that Fellenger voluntarily let this negro tattoo his arm; and so came by his death."