m afraid, sir, you don't know much about servants.
It's a point of honor among us never to tell tales of each other to our
masters."

I began to wish that I had never left Germany. The one course to take now
was to tell the lawyer what had happened. I turned away to get back, and
drive at once to the town. The servant remembered, what I had
forgotten--the five pound note.

"Wait and hear my report, sir," he suggested.

The report informed me: First, that Mr. Toller was at the mill, and had
been there for some time past. Secondly: that the Cur had been alone, for
a while, on Mr. Toller's side of the cottage, in Mr. Toiler's
absence--for what purpose his servant had not discovered. Thirdly: that
the Cur had returned to his room in a hurry, and had packed a few things
in his travelling-bag. Fourthly: that he had ordered the servant to
follow, with his luggage, in a fly which he would send from the railway
station, and to wait at the London terminus for further orders. Fifthly,
and lastly: that it was impossible to say whether the drunkenness of the
gamekeeper was due to his own habits, or to temptation privately offered
by the very person whose movements he had been appointed to watch.

I paid the money. The man pocketed it, and paid me a compliment in
return: "I wish I was your servant, sir."

CHAPTER XVII

UTTER FAILURE

My lawyer took a serious view of the disaster that had overtaken us. He
would trust nobody but his head clerk to act in my interests, after the
servant had been followed to the London terminus, and when it became a
question of matching ourselves against the deadly cunning of the man who
had escaped us.

Provided with money, and with a letter to the police authorities in
London, the head clerk went to the station. I accompanied him to point
out the servant (without being allowed to show myself), and then returned
to wait for telegraphic information at the lawyer's office.

This was the first report transmitted by the telegram:

The Cur had been found waiting for his servant at the terminus; and the
two had been easily followed to the railway hotel close by. The clerk had
sent his letter of introduction to the police--had consulted with picked
men who joined him at the hotel--had given the necessary
instructions--and would return to us by the last train in the evening.

In two days, the second telegram arrived.

Our man had been traced to the Thames Yacht Club in Albemarle Street--had
co