"Can you give me a description of his person, not omitting any physical peculiarity?"
"Yes. He was tall, thin, dark-featured, black-haired—he wore no mustache, had shaved it off, he said—and half of the forefinger of his left hand was missing."
Nick's brow clouded for a moment. Then from the innermost corner of his brain crept an idea. "Doctor," said he, "have you given me a complete description of the dead man? Was there not some artificial mark on his left arm?"
"Yes; I had forgotten," replied the superintendent apologetically. "There was a castle tattooed on his arm."
"I thought so. One more question, and I am done. Did Mannion have any visitors, friends, while he was in the hospital?"
"One, his uncle, who came a few days before the typhoid symptoms appeared. Mannion said the uncle was the only blood relative he had."
"Did they hold long conversations?"
"On the first visit they had a long talk. After that they had not much to say to each other."
"Was the uncle an old man?"
"Sixty, at least, though he has no gray hairs. An old soldier, I should say, for he was as straight as an arrow, and had but one arm, taken off close to the shoulder."