y; "a
parallelogram exactly nine inches long and three wide."

"I say! you're wonderfully clever, don't you know," said the stranger,
with unaffected wonder. "I see it all--a brick."

Paul smiled gently and shook his head. "That is the hasty inference of
an inexperienced observer. You will observe at the point of impact of
your wheel the parallel crease is CURVED, as from the yielding of the
resisting substances, and not BROKEN, as it would be by the crumbling of
a brick."

"I say, you're awfully detective, don't you know! just like that
fellow--what's his name?" said the stranger admiringly.

The words recalled Paul to himself. Why was he acting like a detective?
and what was he seeking to discover? Nevertheless, he felt impelled
to continue. "And that queer old chap whom you met--why didn't he help
you?"

"Because I passed him before I ran into the--the parallelogram, and I
suppose he didn't know what happened behind him?"

"Did he have anything in his hand?"

"Can't say."

"And you say you were unconscious afterwards?"

"Yes!"

"Long enough for the culprit to remove the principal evidence of his
crime?"

"Come! I say, really you are--you know you are!"

"Have you any secret enemy?"

"No."

"And you don't know Mr. Bunker, the man who owns this vast estate?"

"Not at all. I'm from Upper Tooting."

"Good afternoon," said Paul abruptly, and turned away.

It struck him afterwards that his action might have seemed uncivil, and
even inhuman, to the bruised cyclist, who could hardly walk. But it was
getting late, and he was still far from the Hall, which, oddly enough,
seemed to be no longer visible from the road. He wandered on for some
time, half convinced that he had passed the lodge gates, yet hoping to
find some other entrance to the domain. Dusk was falling; the rounded
outlines of the park trees beyond the wall were solid masses of shadow.
The full moon, presently rising, restored them again to symmetry, and at
last he, to his relief, came upon the massive gateway. Two lions ramped
in stone on the side pillars. He thought it strange that he had not
noticed the gateway on his previous entrance, but he remembered that he
was fully preoccupied with the advancing figure of his uncle. In a few
minutes the Hall itself appeared, and here again he was surprised that
he had overlooked before its noble proportions and picturesque outline.
Its broad terraces, dazzlingly white in the moonlight; its long lin