"
Chapter III.
"M. Dolaro."
Next day men talked, newspaper in hand, at the breakfast-table, in the
early trains, omnibuses, and tramcars, of the singular railway outrage.
It was clear its purpose was not robbery. What, then, did it mean?
Some--probably most--declared it was very plain what it meant; while
others,--the few,--after much argument, confessed themselves quite
mystified.
The police, too, were not idle. They made inquiries and took notes here
and there. They discovered that the five o'clock train made but two
pauses on its journey to London--at Croydon and at Clapham Junction. At
neither of those places could a man in a fur coat be heard of as having
descended from the train; and yet it was manifest that he did not arrive
at Grosvenor Road, where tickets were taken. After persistent and wider
inquiries, however, at Clapham Junction (which was the most likely point
of departure), a cabman was found who remembered having taken up a
fare--a gentleman in a fur coat--about the hour indicated. He
particularly remarked the gentleman, because he looked odd and foreign
and half tipsy (that was how he seemed to him), because he was wrapped
up "enough for Father Christmas," and because he asked to be driven such
a long way--to a well-known hotel near the Crystal Palace, where
"foreign gents" were fond of staying.
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