"Got your case complete?" asked the latter.
"I've done more than that, sir," said Prout. "I've stumbled on something important relating to that Corner House business. And if you don't want me any more, I'd like to go and see Mr. Gilbert Lawrence."
There was nothing more to be done for the present. Ten minutes later Prout was knocking at the door of Lawrence's chambers.
[CHAPTER XXXI.]
AN URGENT CALL.
Lawrence was burning the midnight oil, and therefore impatient of interruptions. But upon hearing Prout's name he finished the chapter he was writing, and slung up his reading lamp. He was hospitable over his cigarette and whisky.
"Come to tell me you have made a discovery, eh?" he asked. "No need to tell me that, I can see it in your face. Sit down man--one o'clock in the morning is comparatively early for a novelist. Go on."
"It's a great discovery, sir," said Prout. "I have found the brother of the murdered man."
"What, the Corner House victim? Is that really a fact?"