e last, that's all. Now,
take it quiet; don't let's have any nonsense, you know.'

The clean-shaven stranger's lips pressed close together with a resolute
look, and his hand came a little way out of the breast of his coat.

'Will you have the goodness to tell me what you mean?' asked Barndale,
bewildered, and a little angry to find himself so.

'Well, if you _won't_ know anything about it, Mr. James Leland was found
yesterday in a house-boat at Thames Ditton, with a pistol bullet into
him, and he ain't expected to recover, and that's my business along with
you, and I'll trouble you to come quiet.'

The tension on the official nerves made hash of the official's English.
Barndale smote the mantel-piece with his clenched hand.

'Great God!' he cried. 'The Greek! Where is Mr. Leland?' he asked the
official eagerly.

'In bed at the "Swan," abeing doctored. That's where _he_ is,' replied
the official curtly. 'Now, come along, and don't let's have no more
palaver.'

Barndale discerned the nature of the situation, and remained master of
himself.

'I will come with you,' he said with grave self-possession. 'I am
somehow suspected of having a hand in the attempted murder of my friend.
Now, you shall arrest me since you must, but you shall not tie the hands
of justice by preventing me from tracing the criminal. The man who has
committed this crime is Demetri Agryopoulo, a Greek, attached to the
Persian Embassy at Constantinople. You look like a shrewd and wary man,'
Barndale took out his cheque-book and wrote a cheque for one hundred
pounds. 'When you have done with me, cash that cheque and spend every
penny of it, if need be, in pursuit of that man. When it is gone come
to me for more. When you have caught him, come to me for five hundred
pounds. Wait a moment.'

He sat down and wrote in a great, broad hand: 'I promise to pay to
Bearer the sum of Five Hundred Pounds (500L.) on the arrest of Demetri
Agryopoulo, attache to the Persian Embassy at Constantinople__W. Holmes
Barn-dale.' He appended date and place, and handed it to the officer.

'Very good, sir,' said he, waving the papers to and fro in the air to
dry the ink, and keeping all the while a wary eye on Barndale. 'I know
that my opinion goes for nothing, but if I was a grand jury I should
throw out the bill, most likely. We'll make it as quiet as we _can_,
sir; but there's two of my men outside, and if there should be any need
for force it'll have to be used, th