"It will still be a soft job for you, Miles," retorted Brown, a little spitefully. "You won't have to play up the damp and the beetles. You are here for life, old man."
"I know," said Miles in a gloomy tone. "But I shall see him staring at me every minute of the day and night."
The body was removed to the mortuary. The evening newspapers had flaring headlines: "Gruesome Discovery in No. 10 Cathcart Square." An enterprising journalist had got hold of Miles, and speedily discovering his weakness, had taken him to the nearest public-house, and plied him plentifully with liquor, with a view to a sensational article.
The enterprising reporter made the best of his material, but it did not amount to much.
The caretaker knew nothing about the dead man, he was armed at all points with his alibi. As regards the house itself, invested with so much tragedy, the present tenant was a Mr. Washington, a man of considerable means, now abroad. Mr. Washington was prepared to let it furnished. The furniture was very valuable.
To a public greedily anxious for the smallest details, the astute journalist served up a nice little article, describing the expensive furniture, and adding a short life-history of Mr. Washington, as supplied by the reminiscent Miles. The public swallowed this article eagerly and awaited further developments.
These came with the inquest, and there was a somewhat tame ending to what had promised to be a very sensational case.
Some three months previously, a certain man named Reginald Davis had been suspected of committing a murder while driving a motor-car in Cornwall. The evidence, although circumstantial, had been very convincing. The police had been on his track, but not quickly enough. The man had eluded their vigilance, and run to earth somewhere.
On the body of the dead man in Cathcart Square, the two constables had found three letters addressed to Reginald Davis. Also a letter, signed Reginald Davis, addressed to the Coroner in which he avowed his intention of committing suicide at the earliest opportunity.
It was fairly evident from this that the wretched man, hunted by the police, and recognising that capture was imminent in the course of a few days, had resolved upon the fatal step, had effected his entrance into the lonely house in Cathcart Square, had found it even more deserted than he imagined, and in that little dressing-room cheated the law.