"Let me sit down," he said. "I'm weak, tired, too. Until this morning I hadn't had a mouthful of food for a long time, and I'd--well, I'd been walking about, night as well as day. I was walking about all yesterday, and a lot of last night. I'm pretty nearly done, if you want to know!" "Take your time," said Drillford. "Here, wait a bit," he went on after a sudden glance at his prisoner. "Keep quiet a minute." He turned to a cupboard in the corner of the room and presently came back with something in a glass. "Drink that," he said not unkindly. "Drop of weak brandy and water," he muttered to Viner. "Do him no harm--I see how it is with him--he's been starving." Hyde caught the last word and laughed feebly as he handed the glass back. "Starving!" he said. "Yes--that's it! I hope neither of you'll know what it means! Three days without--" "Now, Hyde!" interrupted Viner. "Never mind that--you won't starve again. Come--tell us all about this--tell everything." Hyde bent forward in his chair, but after a look at the two men, his eyes sought the floor and moved from one plank to another as if he found it difficult to find a fixed point. "I don't know where to begin, Viner," he said at last. "You see, you've never met me since we left school. I went in for medicine--I was at Bart's for a time, but--well, I was no good, somehow. And then I went in for the stage--I've had some fairly decent engagements, both here and in the States, now and then. But you know what a precarious business that is. And some time ago I struck a real bad patch, and I've been out of a job for months. And lately it's gone from bad to worse--you know, or rather I suppose you don't know, because you've never been in that fix--pawning everything, and so on, until--well, I haven't had a penny in my pockets for days now!" "Your relations?" questioned Viner. "Didn't want them to know," answered Hyde. "The fact is, I haven't been on good terms with them for a long time, and I've got some pride left--or I had, until yesterday. But here's the truth: I had to clear out of my lodgings--which was nothing but an attic, three days since, and I've been wandering about, literally hungry and homeless, since that. If it hadn't been for that, I should never have been in this hole! And that's due to circumstances that beat me, for I tell you again, I don't know anything about this man's murder--at least, not about it actually." "What do you know?" asked Viner. "Tell us plainly."