ss bow.

"How long have you been here?" asked Mr. Mann.

Frank looked at him inquiringly.

"How long have I been here?" he repeated. "I cannot tell you the exact
time, but I have been here since a short while after lunch."

Mr. Mann was bewildered and still unconvinced.

"What clothes did you take off?"

It was Frank's turn to look amazed and bewildered.

"Clothes?" he repeated. "What are you driving at, my dear chap?"

"What suit were you wearing to-day?" persisted Saul Arthur Mann.

Frank disappeared into his dressing room and came out with a tumbled
bundle which he dropped on a chair. It was the blue suit which he
usually affected.

"Now what is the joke?"

"It is no joke," said the other. "I could have sworn that I saw you less
than half an hour ago in Camden Town."

"I won't pretend that I don't know where Camden Town is," smiled Frank,
"but I have not visited that interesting locality for many years."

Saul Arthur Mann was silent. It was obvious to him that whoever was the
occupant of 69 Flowerton Road, it was not Frank Merrill. Frank listened
to the narrative with interest.

"You were probably mistaken; the light played you a trick, I expect," he
said.

But Mr. Mann was emphatic.

"I could have taken an oath in a court that it was you," he said.

Frank stared out of the window.

"How very curious!" he mused. "I suppose I cannot very well prosecute a
man for looking like me--poor girl!"

"Of whom are you thinking?" asked the other.

"I was thinking of the unfortunate woman," answered Frank. "What brutes
there are in the world!"

"You gave me a terrible fright," admitted his friend.

Frank's laugh was loud and hearty.

"I suppose you saw me figuring in a court, charged with common assault,"
he said.

"I saw more than that," said the other gravely, "and I see more than
that now. Suppose you have a double, and suppose that double is working
in collusion with your enemies."

Frank shook his head wearily.

"My dear friend," he said, with a little smile, "I am tired of supposing
things. Come and dine with me."

But Mr. Mann had another engagement. Moreover, he wanted to think things
out.

Thinking things out was a process which brought little reward in this
instance, and he went to bed that night a vexed and puzzled man. He
always had his breakfast in bed at ten o'clock in the morning, for he
had reached the age of habits and had fixed ten o'clock, since it gave
his clerks time to b