He strode to the door of the room, opened it, came out into the wide carpeted corridor and hurried up to the lift. He pressed the button and heard it ring far down below. In a minute or two there came the clash of the shutting doors, the "chunk" of the hydraulic mechanism, and he saw the shadow of the lift-roof rising up towards him. The attendant opened the door. "Will you take me up to the fourth floor, please," he said, "to Mr. Eustace Charliewood's room?" "Mr. Charliewood, sir?" the man replied. "Oh, yes, I remember, number 408. Tall, clean-shaved gentleman." "That's him," Sir William said. "I have only just learnt that he has been staying in the hotel. He is an old friend, and I had no idea he was here." The iron doors clashed, the lift shot upward, and the attendant and Sir William arrived at the fourth floor. "Down the corridor, sir, and the first turning on the right," the lift-man said. "But perhaps I'd better show you." He ran the ironwork gates over their rollers and hurried down the corridor with Sir William. They turned the corner, and the man pointed to a door some fifteen yards away. "That's it, sir," he said. "That's Mr. Charliewood's room." Even as he spoke there was a sudden loud explosion which seemed to come from the room to which he had pointed--a horrid crash in the warm, richly-lit silence of the hotel. The man turned to Sir William with a white face. "Come on," he said, forgetting his politeness. "Something has happened. Come, quick!" When they burst into the room they found the man about town lying upon the hearth-rug with a little blue circle edged with crimson in the centre of his forehead. The hands were still moving feebly, but what had been Eustace Charliewood was no longer there. CHAPTER XI BEEF TEA AND A PHOSPHATE SOLUTION Sir William Gouldesbrough remained in Brighton for three days. Eustace Charliewood had died in two minutes after the lift-man and the scientist had burst into the room. The suicide had said no word, and indeed was absolutely unconscious from the moment the shot had been fired, until his almost immediate death. Sir William had made all the necessary arrangements. He had communicated with old Sir Miles Charliewood, of Norfolk, he had expedited the arrangements for the inquest, and he was, as the newspapers said, "overcome with grief at the death of his old and valued friend." During the three days, the demeanour of the famous scientist was reported on with great admiration in all quarters. He had known of nothing to cause Mr. Eustace Charliewood any trouble or worry, and he was struck down by the loss he had sustained.