s an important individual both in his own estimation, which was
undoubted, and also in that of the public.

"Hold on one little moment; three people such as you describe--one an
oldish man, a girl, and a third, a man with no description--have I seen
such people getting on a train together? Why, wait!"

The scene as the aged and snappy old gentleman clambered aboard the
train that morning suddenly occurred to the station-master, only to be
put aside in an instant; for it seemed impossible that he could have
been an impostor. The girl, too, looked so natural, so feminine, so
absolutely genuine, and yet----

"Wait though, was it a girl?" the station-master asked himself, for it
flashed across his stolid brain that the movements of the lady in
question had not been, after all, entirely feminine. Now that he
thought about the matter he remembered that at the moment when the
three were boarding the train the lady had shown a most extraordinary
degree of agility. She had clambered like a cat aboard the carriage,
and had given a heave to the old gentlemen which disclosed a degree of
strength somewhat peculiar in a woman. Yes, he was sure of it now, of
course the thing was strange--it was not a woman, he felt sure.

"Hold!" he shouted down the telephone. "I have them!"

"You have them!" came the excited answer. "You have taken the three?
You have got those prisoners?"

"No, no, no! I did not say I had taken them. I have got to the bottom
of the mystery. Those three you mention boarded a train here this
morning, a train going westward."

It was the turn of the inspector to shout down the telephone, to shout
a peremptory order, to inform the station-master that he was coming
immediately; and there followed at the station a close questioning of
the station-master, followed by frantic telegrams and telephone
messages which were sent down the line in pursuit of the train on which
Jules and Henri and Stuart were travelling.

"Now we have them securely, thanks to my promptness and energy," said
the police inspector, as he adjusted his glasses and pocketed his
notebook--yes, pocketed his notebook, for that familiar object, part
and parcel of every constable in Great Britain, is likewise an
important part of the equipment of German policemen. It was with a
flourish that the man pushed it into the short tail of his tunic, then
he hitched his belt a trifle tighter, expanded his manly chest, and set
his helmet at just th