Description
wer to the description of any they’d had.”
“Nor to the description of any of the patients, I hope,” suggested Lord Peter casually.
At this grisly hint Mr. Thipps turned pale.
“I didn’t hear Inspector Sugg enquire,” he said, with some agitation. “What a very horrid thing that would be–God bless my soul, my lord, I never thought of it.”
“Well, if they had missed a patient they’d probably have discovered it by now,” said Lord Peter. “Let’s have a look at this one.”
He screwed his monocle into his eye, adding: “I see you’re troubled here with the soot blowing in. Beastly nuisance, ain’t it? I get it, too–spoils all my books, you know. Here, don’t you trouble, if you don’t care about lookin’ at it.”
He took from Mr. Thipps’s hesitating hand the sheet which had been flung over the bath, and turned it back.
The body which lay in the bath was that of a tall, stout man of about fifty. The hair, which was thick and black and naturally curly, had been cut and parted by
