"Is this room the way Fullerton left it?" Lyon asked, taking the chair which was placed before the desk, and glancing about.
"Yes. No one has been here since he left."
"No stenographer or clerk?"
"He has had no clerk for some time, and when he needed a stenographer he called one in from the agency in the building. As a matter of fact, I think his business had fallen off rather seriously in the last few years. He had lost some of his old clients, and he didn't seem to get new ones. Often his office would be locked up and he would be away for days at a time."
"Bad for business, that. Was his office rent paid?"
The manager shrugged his shoulders and laughed. "No. But I have a lien on his library, so I guess I'm safe."
"Indeed! Then he must really have been pretty badly tied up financially?"
"He was pretty obviously going to pieces. You see, his personal tastes were expensive, and they incapacitated him for business. That cut both ways, in the matter of income."
"How about his other creditors, if you have a lien on his library? That seems to be the only valuable property here."
The manager laughed again. "If there was one man here the day after he was killed there were nineteen. They were all ready to attach his books. There was some rather deep swearing. Funny what things come out about a man after he is dead."