exclaimed; 'a trick to get us out of the
house.'

'We must go back,' said Hugo, breathless.

At this moment the second cab appeared, was delayed a moment by the
multitude listening to the lecture, and passed westwards into Victoria
Street.

'They're in that!' cried Simon.

'Are you sure?' Hugo questioned.

'Of course I'm sure,' said Simon, who in the excitement of the trail had
ceased to be a valet.

To jump into a hansom and order the driver to keep the four-wheeler in
sight ought to have been the work of a few seconds, but it occurred, as
invariably occurs when a hansom is urgently needed, that no hansom was
available. The four-wheeler was receding at a moderate rate in the
direction of the Grosvenor Hotel.

'Run after it!' said Hugo. 'I'll get a cab in the station-yard and
follow.'

The quarry vanished round a corner just as they tumbled into the hansom
on the top of Hugo, but it was never out of observation for more than a
quarter of a minute. Through divers strange streets it came at length
into Fulham Road at Elm Place, and thenceforward, at a higher rate of
speed, it kept to the main thoroughfare. The procession passed the
workhouse and the Redcliffe Arms. Between Edith Grove and Stamford
Bridge the roadway was up for fundamental repairs, and omnibuses were
being diverted down Edith Grove to King's Road. A policeman at the
corner spoke to the driver of the four-wheeler, gave a sign of assent,
and the four-wheeler went straight onwards into a medley of wood-blocks,
which was all that was left of Fulham Road. The hansom followed
intrepidly, and then its three occupants were conscious of a sudden
halt.

'Bobby wants to know where you're going to,' said the driver, opening
the trap.

There was a slight hesitation, and the policeman's voice could be
heard:

'Come out of it!'

'We're following that four-wheeler,' Hugo was about to say, but he
perceived the absurdity of saying such a thing in cold blood to a
policeman.

All three descended. The cabman had to be paid. There was a difficulty
about finding change--one of those silly and ridiculous difficulties
that so frequently supervene in crises otherwise grave; in short, a
succession of trifling delays, each of which might easily have been
obviated by perfect forethought, or by perfect accord between the three
men.

When next they came to close quarters with the four-wheeler it was
leisurely driving away empty from a small semi-detached house whic