"Of course I do, constable--very good of you, though. Tell them it's
all right, just a little party to some of my old friends. And here's a
sovereign for you; call again later on if you have anything to say.
I'm half asleep and dead tired."

He threw a sovereign out on to the grass, and the police sergeant
picked it up sharp enough. I thought there was a kind of hesitation in
his manner, but couldn't make much of it. Whatever he thought or
wished to say, however, that he kept to himself, and after remarking
that the morning would break fine, and that he was much obliged to his
lordship, he mounted and rode away. This was the moment Lord
Crossborough ceased to work the signal, and, opening the front window,
spoke to me direct.

"Stop your engine," he says in a low voice, "and see you don't start it
until that fellow is out of the park."

I thought it a strange order, but did as he wished. It was plain to
me, as it would have been plain to any one, that he didn't wish the
constable to see us take the lower road, and had thought out this trick
to work his will. I am a pretty good hand myself at stopping my
engine, and being unable to start her, especially when my master or
mistress wants to get there in a hurry and doesn't consult my
convenience. So I was down in a jiffy when his lordship spoke, and
there I stood, pretending to swing the handle and to poke about inside
the bonnet until the sergeant had turned the corner of the drive, and
it was safe to go ahead again.

The second lodge lay perhaps the third of a mile from the place where
we had halted, and we must pass within a hundred yards of the house
itself to get to it. I didn't need to be told not to sound my horn as
we went by, and we were creeping along nicely when--and this was
something which seemed to hit me in the very face--we came upon a man
walking under the trees by the lake side, and he--believe me or not as
you like--was the very living image of my passenger. "Good God!" says
I, "then there are two of 'em," and in a very twinkling the whole
nature of this night's business seemed clear to me.

A man just like his lordship, dressed in a tweed suit and with a thick
stick in his hand--a man with a bushy black beard, a full round
forehead, and the very walk and movement of the man I carried. What
was I to make of him, what to think of it? Well, I can hardly tell you
that, for, no sooner did we catch sight of the man than my passenger
roared