Passing through the opening made by taking away this board, he found himself in the yard of the middle house.

“The trunks came from here,” he said.  “They were lowered down in the dumb waiter to the cellar and then carried through the lot to Fifty-seventh street.

“I’ll leave the rest of this job to you, Patsy.  Find out all you can and have as many witnesses as you can get together, at the superintendent’s office to-morrow afternoon, at three o’clock.  We’re going to have a special examination into this case.”

The special examination began promptly at the hour named by Nick.

All the persons hitherto mentioned in connection with the case—­except, of course, the two victims—­were present.  There were also several witnesses whom Patsy had secured.

“The case which I have made out,” said Nick, “is perfectly clear.  It begins with Gaspard’s identification of the prisoner, Jones.

“We know that he was at the restaurant when the crime was committed.  His name is on the books.

“In some way, which I am not now prepared to fully explain, the waiter, Corbut, obtained a knowledge of the crime.  It was necessary for the criminal to get Corbut out of the way.

“I saw Corbut get into a cab at the door of the restaurant.  The driver, Harrigan, testified to taking him and another man to a point on West Fifty-seventh street.  He was not sure of the exact spot, but he fixed the locality in a general way.

“From that point all trace of Corbut was lost for a time.  At last his body was found.

“I succeeded in tracing the body back to a place near the spot where Harrigan last saw Corbut alive.

“I discovered that the body had been removed from a flat house on West Fifty-eighth street.

“My assistant, Patsy, questioned the people in that house.  He learned that the third flat had been occupied by a couple who lived very quietly.

“The man was often away.  I now desire to ask the witness, Eliza Harris, who lives in that house, when she last saw the man in question—­the man who rented that third flat.”

A bright-eyed little woman arose at this, and said: 

“I see him now.  There he is!”

She pointed to John Jones.

“He wore a false beard,” she continued, “but I know him.  And there’s the woman.”

She stretched out her hand toward Mrs. Jones.

“To their flat,” Nick continued, “as I have every reason to believe, Corbut was taken by Jones on that night, and there he was murdered and his body cut in two.

“It was placed in the trunks.  Jones intended, probably, to remove it next day, but his arrest prevented.

“Of course it was necessary to get the body out of the way very soon.  But Jones was too closely watched.  That work had to be done by the woman, and she did it exceedingly well.”

Nick told how Musgrave had been duped.