ng; and, with that to keep me up, I drove straight to the lodge
gates, and bawled for them to let me in.

There was a long wait here, fifteen good minutes or more before a
tousled-haired girl opened the little window of the cottage, and asked
me what I wanted. When I told her to look sharp and not keep his
lordship waiting, I do believe she laughed in my face.

"Why, he's not left the house for a month!" cries she. "Now don't tell
me!"

"Oh, but I'm going to tell you--that and a lot more, if you don't hurry
up. Don't you see that I've brought his lordship home?"

"Oh, dear me," says she, all flustered; "I'm sure I beg his lordship's
pardon----" and with that she came down like a shot and opened the
gate. For my part I had nothing more to say to her, except the remark
which Lord Crossborough had ordered me to make, and exclaiming, "His
lordship is late to-night," I let the clutch in and started the car. A
glance behind me showed me my passenger fast asleep, with the girl
staring at him with all her eyes. But she said no more, and I drove
on, and hadn't gone fifty yards before the signal was working again.

"Oh," says I, "then we've got no sort of dormouse up to be sure.
Asleep and awake again all in five minutes"; but I slowed up the car as
he directed, and immediately afterwards he called my attention to
another party who shared the road with us, and was as curious as the
girl. He was a policeman, and he had passed through the lodge gates
right on our heels.

I don't know how it is, but if you are doing anything you have any
doubt about at all, the sight of a policeman always gives you the
creeps. I never see one, but I wonder if he has been timing me, or
quarrelling with my number-plates, or doing one or other of those
things which policemen do, and we poor devils pay for.

This time I was right down afraid, and made no bones about it. The
scene in Portman Square, the women's screams, the empty house, the
black hangings, the talk concerning the duel, and his lordship's
mysterious words about Captain Blackham never troubling him any more:
they came upon me in a flash, and almost drove me silly. Not so my
lord himself--I had never seen him calmer.

"Good-morning, constable," says he, "and what can I do for you?"

"I beg your pardon, sir," says the man, dismounting as he spoke, "but
there's a telegram from London about your house in Portman Square, and
I came up to see if you know anything about it."