Heise was the most important man the length and breadth of Polk Street; almost invariably he accompanied these parties, telling again and again of the part he had played in the affair.
"It was about eleven o'clock.

I was standing in front of the shop, when Mrs.McTeague--you know, the dentist's wife--came running across the street," and so on and so on.
The next day came a fresh sensation.

Polk Street read of it in the morning papers.

Towards midnight on the day of the murder Zerkow's body had been found floating in the bay near Black Point.

No one knew whether he had drowned himself or fallen from one of the wharves.