d evidently he hasn't gone to any of his friends, or
the whole story would have been out. Now, there is nowhere where a man can
lie low so well, especially if he is hard up, as London. I can answer from
experience. He is hardly likely to be in the West End, or the best class
of suburbs, so we've something to go upon at once. We must go to a private
inquiry office and put men on his track, and then we must take the town in
beats ourselves. So much is clear; do you see?"

"And hadn't we better find out whether anything more is known at
Clankwood?" suggested Twiddel. "Dr Congleton wrote a month ago; perhaps
they have caught him by this time."

"Hardly likely, I'm afraid; he'd have written to you if they had. Still,
we can but ask."

"But, I say!" the doctor suddenly exclaimed, "people may find out that I'm
back without him."

Welsh was equal to the emergency.

"You must leave again at once," he said decisively, rising from the table;
"and there's no good wasting time, either."

"What do you mean?" asked the bewildered doctor, who had not yet
assimilated the criminal point of view.

"We'll put our luggage straight on to a cab, drive off to other rooms--I
know a cheap place that will do--and if by any chance inquiries are made,
people must be told that you are still abroad. Nobody must hear of your
coming home to-night."

"Is it----" began Twiddel, dubiously.

"Is it what?" snapped his friend.

"Is it worth it?"

"Is L500, not to speak of two reputations, worth it! Come on!"

The unfortunate doctor sighed, and rose too. He was beginning to think
that the nefarious acquisition of fees might have drawbacks after all.

CHAPTER II.

The chronicle must now go back a few days and follow another up-express.

"I must either be a clergyman or a policeman," Mr Bunker reflected, in the
corner of his carriage; "they seem to me to be on the whole the two least
molested professions. Each certainly has a livery which, if its occupier
is ordinarily judicious, ought to serve as a certificate of sanity. To me
all policemen are precisely alike, but I daresay they know them apart in
the force, and as all the beats and crossings are presumably taken
already, I might excite suspicion by my mere superfluity. Besides, a
theatrical costumier's uniform would possibly lack some ridiculous but
essential detail."

He lit another cigar and looked humorously out of the window.

"I shall take orde