"I see. Well, you are going to stay here for some time, I suppose?"
"Oh, yes, I hope so."
"Then why is that large trunk of yours addressed to 'The Station Master, Berlin—To be called for'?"
"I am sending some things there that I don't want."
"Oh! You might let me see what they are."
The detective went outside, gave an order to the vanmen, a knife was produced, the cords of the huge trunk were cut, and the lock forced. The lid sprang up, and the body of a man weighing eighteen stone was discovered inside. His skull had been split open with a hatchet.
The evidence brought forward at the trial saved Madam's neck by inducing the jury to make their verdict manslaughter. The sentence deprived the police of Madam's valuable information for twelve years.
We have looked up at the house in which Madam's secret was discovered; let us look at the house in which the crime was committed.
It is only a little distance away. Here is the street It has rather a Continental appearance. The names over the doors are mostly foreign. There is the house. Madam's room was on the first floor.
The first floor is to let. Plenty of people have occupied it since Madam gave it up. Some of them have slept night after night in the very room in which a man of eighteen stone was done to death, packed up in a trunk, and addressed to the station master at Berlin. Very few of the occupants, I fancy, have had any knowledge of the story of that room.