THE PRISONER "I really don't know," continued the man in the corner blandly, "what it was that interested me in the case from the very first.

Certainly it had nothing very out of the way or mysterious about it, but I journeyed down to Brighton nevertheless, as I felt that something deeper and more subtle lay behind that extraordinary assault, following a robbery, no doubt.
"I must tell you that the police had allowed it to be freely circulated abroad that they held a clue.

It had been easy enough to ascertain who the lodger was who had rented the furnished room in Russell House.

His name was supposed to be Edward Skinner, and he had taken the room about a fortnight ago, but had gone away ostensibly for two or three days on the very day of Mr.Morton's mysterious disappearance.

It was on the 20th that Mr.Morton was found, and thirty-six hours later the public were gratified to hear that Mr.Edward Skinner had been traced to London and arrested on the charge of assault upon the person of Mr.Francis Morton and of robbing him of the sum of L10,000.
"Then a further sensation was added to the already bewildering case by the startling announcement that Mr.Francis Morton refused to prosecute.
"Of course, the Treasury took up the case and subpoenaed Mr.Morton as a witness, so that gentleman--if he wished to hush the matter up, or had been in any way terrorised into a promise of doing so--gained nothing by his refusal, except an additional amount of curiosity in the public mind and further sensation around the mysterious case.
"It was all this, you see, which had interested me and brought me down to Brighton on March 23rd to see the prisoner Edward Skinner arraigned before the beak.