Andrew had set apart July 31 for Lord Randolph Churchill.  
As his term of was up in the second week of August, this would leave him nearly a fortnight to finish his thesis in.
 
On the 30th he bought a knife in Holborn suitable for his purpose. It had been his original intention to use an electric rifle, but those he was shown were too cumbrous for use in the streets.
 
The statesman was residing at this time at the Grand Hotel, and Andrew thought to get him somewhere between Trafalgar Square and the House. Taking up his position in a window of Morley's Hotel at an early hour, he set himself to watch the windows opposite. The plan of the Grand was well known to him, for he had frequently made use of it as overlooking the National Liberal Club, whose membership he had already slightly reduced.
 
Turning his eyes to the private sitting-rooms, he soon discovered Lord Randolph busily writing in one of them.
 
Andrew had lunch at Morley's, so that he might be prepared for any emergency. Lord Randolph wrote on through the forenoon, and Andrew hoped he would finish what he was at in case this might be his last chance.
 
It rained all through the afternoon. The thick seemed to double the width of the street, and even to Andrew's strained eyes the shadow in the room opposite was obscured.
 
His eyes wandered from the window to the hotel entrance, and as cab after cab from it he became uneasy.
 
In ordinary circumstances he could have picked his man out anywhere, but in rain all men look alike. He could have dashed across the street and rushed from room to room of the Grand Hotel.
 
His self-restraint was rewarded.
 
Late in the afternoon Lord Randolph came to the window. The flashing and umbrellas were a surprise to him, and he knitted his brows in .
 
By-and-by his face was convulsed with laughter.
 
He drew a chair to the window and stood on it, that he might have a better view of the pavement beneath.
 
For some twenty minutes he remained there his , his shoulders heaving with glee.
 
Andrew could not see what it was, but he a theory.
 
Heavy blobs of rain that had gathered on the window-sill slowly released their hold from time to time and fell with a plump on the hats of passers-by. Lord Randolph was watching them.
 
Just as they were letting go he shook the window to make the look up. They got the rain-drops full in the face, and then he screamed.
 
About six o'clock Andrew paid his bill hurriedly and ran downstairs. Lord Randolph had come to the window in his greatcoat. His waited for him outside. It was possible that he would take a hansom and drive straight to the House, but Andrew had reasons for thinking this unlikely. The rain had somewhat . Lord Randolph came out, put up his umbrella, and, glancing at the sky for a moment, set off briskly up St. Martin's Lane.
 
Andrew knew that he would not linger here, for they had done St. Martin's Lane already.
 
Lord Randolph's movements these last days had excited the Scotchman's curiosity. He had been doing the London streets during his unoccupied afternoons. But it was difficult to discover what he was after.
 
It was the tobacconists' shops that attracted him.
 
He did not enter, only stood at the windows counting something.
 
He down the result on a piece of paper and then sped on to the next shop.
 
In this way, with Andrew at his heels, he had done the whole of the W. C. district, St. James's, Street, Piccadilly, Bond Street, and the Burlington .
 
On this occasion he took the small thoroughfares lying between upper Regent Street and Tottenham Court Road. Beginning in Great Titchfield Street he went from tobacconist's to tobacconist's, sometimes smiling to himself, at other times frowning. Andrew scrutinised the windows as he left them, but could make nothing of it.
 
Not for the first time he felt that there could be no murder to-night unless he saw the paper first.
 
Lord Randolph an hour to this work. Then he hailed a cab.
 
Andrew expected this. But the statesman still held the paper loosely in his hand.
 
It was a temptation.
 
Andrew bounded forward as if to open the cab door, upon the paper and disappeared with it up an . After five minutes' lest he might ............