going to come down on you to-morrow with a surprise like a thousand of
bricks.'

'What lay, Albert?' asked Hugo, advancing into the room.

'The secret-finding lay, sir,' said Albert.

'Your wife has the right to be anxious about you,' Hugo observed, after
a pause. 'But you don't seem to be quite dying, Shawn; and I think it
will be as well if you explain to me why you have adopted the profession
of burglar. It is extremely singular that there should have been three
burglars here to-night. You, and then me--'

'What did I tell you, Alb?' Mrs. Albert Shawn exclaimed. 'Didn't I tell
you I heard a scuffle?'

'The scuffle was between me and No. 3. And be it known to you, Mrs.
Shawn, that the revolver was not fired by me, but by No. 3. I took it
off him, afterwards.'

'Then No. 3 must have come on behalf of Mr. Ravengar, sir,' said Albert.

'You are no doubt right,' Hugo agreed. 'But how did you know that?'

'Hawke's Detective Agency, sir. I found out before my wedding that one
of their men had been hanging about here, so I chummed up to him. I spun
him a yarn how I'd been with Hawke's once, and they gave me the bag, and
I wasn't satisfied, and he'd got a lot of grievances against Hawke's,
too, he had. We got very friendly. Pity I had to leave the thing for my
wedding. But I came back after a week.'

'Yes, that he did, sir,' said Lily proudly, 'and insisted on it.'

'I soon knew they were going to burglarize this flat to get some
phonograph records.'

'Phonograph records!' Hugo repeated, pondering.

'Yes, sir; and so I thought I'd be beforehand with 'em.'

'Why didn't you tell me directly you knew?'

'You gave me that Gaboriau book to read, sir, and I learnt a lot from
it. It's put me up to a power of things. And, amongst others, that two
people can't manage one job. One job, one man.'

'You'll excuse Albert, sir,' said Lily; 'that's only his way of
talking.'

'It was simply this, sir. I found out enough to make me as sure as eggs
is eggs that you'd like to have those phonograph records yourself,
without having to inquire too much where they came from or how they
came.'

'I see.'

'Exactly, sir. Well, to cut a long story short, sir, I happened to come
across something yesterday that made me think that the annual sale was
going to be interfered with by parties unknown. But I'd got all I could
manage, and I left that alone; I'd no time for it. And last night
parties unknown tried to break my leg for me w