Freyberger opened the valise. There was a suit of clothes in it, nothing else—a frock coat and waistcoat and a pair of trousers.
They were evidently the production of a first class tailor, though the little squares of glazed linen, bearing the customer’s name, which all good London tailors affix to their productions, both under the collar of the coat and inside the strap of the waistcoat, had been removed.
Freyberger returned the things to the valise and replaced it in the corner, then he began a minute inspection of the room.
He examined the pile of newspapers. They were all recent and dating from the day after the murder committed in the Cottage on the Fells. Daily Telegraphs, Daily Mails, Westminster Gazettes, every sort and condition of newspaper, and in each of them was a report, more or less full, more or less varying, of the Gyde mystery.
He returned them to their corner and resumed his search of the room, examining every hole and cranny, lifting the hearthrug and fender, exploring the contents of the trumpery vases on the chimneypiece and finding nothing of much importance, if we except the sheath of a case knife lying behind one of the vases.
He left the room and went upstairs to the bedrooms. They were all empty, clean swept and destitute of anything to hold the eye.
The person he was in pursuit of, if he lived in this house, evidently slept upon the old couch in the sitting-room, and did not trouble much about the conveniences of life.
Freyberger returned to the sitting-room, sat down in the armchair, just as though he were at home, took a cigar from his pocket and lit it.
He was in the tiger’s den. At any moment it was quite within the bounds of possibility that the door might open and the terror, having let himself in by the verandah, enter the room. This was not what made Freyberger feel uneasy, but rather the thought that the unknown might have noticed Hellier following him and taken fright.
Freyberger was quite unarmed; yet, had his sinister opponent entered the room at that moment, he would have arrested him just as he had arrested the Fashion Street murderer, and borne him, without doubt, in the same manner, to justice.