"Oh, sir, it's the murder!"
"What murder?"
"The General, sir, who lives at Merton, sir, found stabbed in his own sitting-room, sir!"
"Stabbed, do you say? It cannot be!"
"Quite true, sir, as I'm a waiter! And they have got the murderer in custody."
"Murderer! impossible! What mean you?" exclaimed the traveller, hastily.
"Why, sir, the fellow that killed Sir Thomas is taken redhand, I think they call it."
"Who is he?"
"Just Tom Vallance, sir—an idle fellow, to be sure, but the last person that I would have thought would do such a thing."
"What! the son of the old housekeeper?"