A Detective's Story

It was a very singular, mysterious and complicated case. 

In a bare room of an old house in the vicinity of London bridge railway station, a man was found dead, hanging by a small cord to a hook driven into the wall, his feet resting on the floor. 

He was discovered some days after his death, by reason of the strong smell sent forth from the decomposing body. 

He was a stranger whom no one knew, and why he should have come to that place to commit suicide was a mystery. 

He was well dressed, had a gold watch in his pocket, to which was attached a heavy gold chain; he had a diamond stud in his shirt front, and a cluster ring of diamonds on one finger; he also had a pocketbook on his person containing over £200 in bank notes. 

It was therefore evident that he had not committed suicide on account of poverty, nor been murdered for his money. 

Was it suicide, or was it murder? 

There was no scrap of paper on his person to tell who the stranger was, nor his motive for the murderous deed, if he did it. 

The room, which was an upper story of an old building, the lower portion of which was occupied by a commission agent, contained no article of furniture.