, you," he cried, as I drew up, "who have you got in that car?"

"Why," says I, "who should I have but somebody who has a right to be
there? Ask his lordship for himself."

"His lordship--do you mean Lord Crossborough?"

I went to say "Yes," just as he opened the door. You shall judge what
I thought of it when a glance behind me showed that the landaulette was
empty.

"Now, who are you making game of?" cried the sergeant, throwing the
door wide open. "There ain't no lordship in here. What do you mean by
saying there was?"

"Well, he was there when I left Five Corners----"

"What! you've come from his house?"

"Straight away," says I, "and no calls. Ask him for yourself."

He could see that I was flabbergasted and telling him the truth. There
was the landaulette as empty as a box of chocolates when the
parlourmaid has done with them. How Lord Crossborough got out or where
he had gone to when he did get out, I knew no more than the dead. One
thing was plain--I was as clean sold as any greenhorn at any country
fair. And I made no bones about telling the sergeant as much.

"He asked me to drive him down from town to his house at Five Corners.
My mistress told me to take him, and I did. I was to have fifteen of
the best for the job--and here you see what I get. Oh, you bet I'm
happy."

I spoke with some feeling, and you may be sure I felt pretty kind
towards Lord Crossborough just then. To be kept up all night and run
about like a "yellow breeches," to have my ears crammed with promises
and my skin drenched with the mists, to find myself stranded in Barnet
at the end. It was more than any man's temper could stand, and that I
told the sergeant.

"Well," says I, "next time I meet him, I shall have something pretty
strong to say to that same Lord Crossborough, and you may tell him so
when you see him."

"See him--I wish we could see him. There's half the county police
looking for him this minute. Oh, we'd like to see him all right, and a
few others as well. Now, you come down to the station and tell us all
about it. There'll be a cup of hot coffee there, and I daresay you
won't mind that."

I said that I wouldn't, and went along with him. An inspector at the
station took my story down from the time I set off from the Carlton to
the moment I quitted Five Corners. What he wanted it for, what Lord
Crossborough had done, or what he was going to do, they didn't tell me,
nor did I care. But they g