had better stay a little longer," I said to the inspector. "Here is
another man coming who may be able to give you some more details of the
Pirate. He has seen him, and as he has been a longer resident here than
myself, he may be able to tell you more about the people round than I
can."

"A motorist?" he asked.

"Yes, named Mannering," I replied. "He is the man I told you about, whom
I consider to be my rival, you know."

The inspector's eyes twinkled. "I shouldn't let him drive me into any
more adventures like last night's, Mr. Sutgrove," he advised. "If you
were ten years older--my age, you know--you wouldn't need the warning, A
bout of rheumatic fever would be small consolation for the loss of the
lady."

I could not reply, for at that moment Mannering entered.

"Glad to see you home again, Sutgrove," he said heartily. "I'm not the
only one either. Miss Maitland asked me to call, for after seeing you in
such bad company this morning---- Hullo! I beg your pardon, I thought
you were alone." He stopped suddenly on catching sight of Inspector
Forrest.

I introduced my guest and Mannering acknowledged the introduction
easily.

"Inspector Forrest will assure you that I have only been unfortunate
enough to have been the object of our local constabulary's misplaced
zeal. They took me for our mutual friend the Motor Pirate."

"Did they though? What an almighty spoof!" said Mannering. "First time I
ever heard of a man being run in for robbing himself on the high-road.
Beats Gilbert!"

"Mr. Sutgrove did not see the point of the joke at first," said the
inspector. I saw that as he spoke he was taking note of Mannering in
much the same way as he had taken stock of me at the police office.

Mannering appeared to be quite unconscious of his regard, for he
replied--

"Don't suppose I should have relished such a mistake myself. Anyway," he
continued, turning to me, "you have the consolation of knowing that you
are not the only victim of police enterprise. I see from the papers
quite half a dozen motor pirates have been run in. They may have the
real one amongst them; but as his car has so far escaped capture, I
doubt it."

"So do I," I remarked. "And for the additional reason that I have a sort
of presentiment that when his capture is brought about, I am going to
have a hand in it."

"What do you say to that, Inspector?" he answered. "Are you going to
leave the job to amateurs?"

"I never said 'no' to the offer of