The Second Secretary told his young acquaintance Austin Ford, the New York Republic's London reporter, a state secret. A scenario for such an adventure was established on Sowell Street. The steps were broken and uncleaned, and the soot-stained cracked and neglected stucco house fronts gave the area a terrible appearance. A girl who claimed to live on the west side of the street and, according to her, in an upper story, posted a message on the door of a home on Sowell Street. The man who picked up the message claimed to have found it in the middle of the block, opposite the residences. Cuthbert observed Ford enter Dr. Prothero's home, see him move to the side, observe Ford leave the residence, and observe the door shut behind him. As Ford scurried about his prison's perimeter on tiptoe, looking for intruders, Miss Dale's eyes were glued to the windows. The three sharpshooters were firing point-blank at the windows from which Prothero and Pearsall were fighting their battle to the death with an as little caution as though confronting the butts at a rifle range. They appeared to be standing in front of a large grandstand that was filled with an army of ghosts while on a racetrack at night.