The relief in his tone was unmistakable.  That the one was gone was plainly nothing to him in comparison with the fact that the other was left.

Thrusting the bed more into the centre of the room I knelt down beside the man on the floor.  A more deplorable spectacle than he presented I have seldom witnessed.  He was decently clad in a grey tweed suit, white hat, collar and necktie, and it was perhaps that fact which made his extreme attenuation the more conspicuous.  I doubt if there was an ounce of flesh on the whole of his body.  His cheeks and the sockets of his eyes were hollow.  The skin was drawn tightly over his cheek bones,—­the bones themselves were staring through.  Even his nose was wasted, so that nothing but a ridge of cartilage remained.  I put my arm beneath his shoulder and raised him from the floor; no resistance was offered by the body’s gravity,—­he was as light as a little child.

‘I doubt,’ I said, ’if this man has been murdered.  It looks to me like a case of starvation, or exhaustion,—­possibly a combination of both.’

‘What’s that on his neck?’ asked the Inspector,—­he was kneeling at my side.

He referred to two abrasions of the skin,—­one on either side of the man’s neck.

’They look to me like scratches.  They seem pretty deep, but I don’t think they’re sufficient in themselves to cause death.’

’They might be, joined to an already weakened constitution.  Is there anything in his pockets?—­let’s lift him on to the bed.’

We lifted him on to the bed,—­a featherweight he was to lift.  While the Inspector was examining his pockets—­to find them empty —­a tall man with a big black beard came bustling in.  He proved to be Dr Glossop, the local police surgeon, who had been sent for before our quitting the Station House.

His first pronouncement, made as soon as he commenced his examination, was, under the circumstances, sufficiently startling.

’I don’t believe the man’s dead.  Why didn’t you send for me directly you found him?’

The question was put to Mrs Henderson.

’Well, Dr Glossop, I wouldn’t touch ’im myself, and I wouldn’t ’ave ’im touched by no one else, because, as I’ve said afore, I know ‘ow particular them pleesmen is.’

’Then in that case, if he does die you’ll have had a hand in murdering him,—­that’s all’

The lady sniggered.  ’Of course Dr Glossop, we all knows that you’ll always ‘ave your joke.’

‘You’ll find it a joke if you have to hang, as you ought to, you—­’ The doctor said what he did say to himself, under his breath.  I doubt if it was flattering to Mrs Henderson.  ’Have you got any brandy in the house?’

’We’ve got everythink in the ’ouse for them as likes to pay for it,—­everythink.’  Then, suddenly remembering that the police were present, and that hers were not exactly licensed premises, ’Leastways we can send out for it for them parties as gives us the money, being, as is well known, always willing to oblige.’