"I have found Pearsall," said Ford. "He is in No. 40 with
Prothero."

He then related to Cuthbert what had happened. Gerridge had
explained that when the Police called, his first thought was to
protect the good name of his hotel. He had denied any knowledge of
Pearsall only because he no longer was a guest, and, as he supposed
Pearsall had passed out of his life, he saw no reason, why, through
an arrest and a scandal, his hotel should be involved. Believing
Ford to be in the secret service of the police, he was now only too
anxious to clear himself of suspicion by telling all he knew. It
was but little. Pearsall and his niece had been at the hotel for
three days. During that time the niece, who appeared to be an
invalid, remained in her room. On the evening of the third day,
while Pearsall was absent, a call from him had come for her by
telephone, on receiving which Miss Dale had at once left the hotel,
apparently in great agitation. That night she did not return, but
in the morning Pearsall came to collect his and her luggage and to
settle his account. He explained that a woman relative living at
the Langham Hotel had been taken suddenly ill, and had sent for him
and his niece. Her condition had been so serious that they had
remained with her all night, and his niece still was at her
bedside. The driver of a four-wheeler, who for years had stood on
the cab-rank in front of Gerridge's, had driven Pearsall to the
Langham. This man was at the moment on the rank, and from him Ford
learned what he most wished to know.

The cabman remembered Pearsall, and having driven him to the
Langham, for the reason that immediately after setting him down