Tiger" Lillie, a newspaper reporter, is sent to get a story about counterfeiters, and meets Detective Gordon Muldrew. As the two are passing the Florence Hotel, a scream is heard therein. With the hotel manager, they rush to Room 322 and find there a middle-aged man lying on the floor dead with a dagger beside him.
Mona Netherwood, discovered in the corridor, identities the dead man as her father, Aaron Netherwood, an ex-actor who registered under the name of Lightfoot. She was about to visit him, she says. . .