it my some day come in
useful in establishing an alibi if things go wrong with me. You'd have sworn
I was in there just now, wouldn't you?"

"I would indeed," said I.

"Well--you see, I wasn't, so there you are," said Raffles Holmes. "By-the-
way, you've come at an interesting moment. There'll be things doing before
the evening is over. I've had an anxious caller here five times already to-
day. I've been standing in the barber-shop opposite getting a line on him.
His card name is Grouch, his real name is--"

Here Raffles Holmes leaned forward and whispered in my ear a name of such
eminent respectability that I fairly gasped.

"You don't mean _the_ Mr. ----"

"Nobody else," said Raffles Holmes. "Only he don't know I know who he is.
The third time Grouch called I trailed him to Blank's house, and then
recognized him as Blank himself."

"And what does he want with you?" I asked.

"That remains to be seen," said Raffles Holmes. "All I know is that next
Tuesday he will be required to turn over $100,000 unregistered bonds to a
young man about to come of age, for whom he has been a trustee."

"Aha!" said I. "And you think--"

"I don't think, Jenkins, until the time comes. Gray matter is scarce these
times, and I'm not wasting any of mine on unnecessary speculation," said
Raffles Holmes.

At this point the telephone-bell rang and Raffles answered the summons.

"Yes, I'll see Mr. Grouch. Show him up," he said. "It would be mighty
interesting reading if some newspaper showed him up," he added, with a grin,
as he returned. "By-the-way, Jenkins, I think you'd better go in there and
have a half-hour's chat with the talking-machine. I have an idea old man
Grouch won't have much to say with a third party present. Listen all you
want to, but don't breathe too loud or you'll frighten him away."

I immediately retired, and a moment later Mr. Grouch entered Raffles
Holmes's den.

"Glad to see you," said Raffles Holmes, cordially. "I was wondering how soon
you'd be here."

"You expected me, then?" asked the visitor, in surprise.

"Yes," said Holmes. "Next Tuesday is young Wilbraham's twenty-first
birthday, and--"

Peering through a crack in the door I could see Grouch stagger.

"You--you know my errand, then?" he gasped out.

"Only roughly, Mr. Grouch," said Holmes, coolly. "Only roughly. But I am
very much afraid that I can't do what you want me to. Those bonds are
doubtless in some broker's box in a safe-deposit co