nry smiled. "Sit down, my dear fellow. If you have any grievance
against me, let me hear it."

Barker sat down. He seemed to be gathering himself for a reproach. When
it did come it was like a bullet from a gun.

"Why did you rob me last night?"

The magistrate was a man of iron nerve. He showed neither surprise nor
resentment. Not a muscle twitched upon his calm, set face.

"Why do you say that I robbed you last night?"

"A big, tall fellow in a motor-car stopped me on the Mayfield road. He
poked a pistol in my face and took my purse and my watch. Sir Henry,
that man was you."

The magistrate smiled.

"Am I the only big, tall man in the district? Am I the only man with a
motor-car?"

"Do you think I couldn't tell a Rolls-Royce when I see it--I, who spend
half my life on a car and the other half under it? Who has a Rolls-Royce
about here except you?"

"My dear Barker, don't you think that such a modern highwayman as you
describe would be more likely to operate outside his own district? How
many hundred Rolls-Royces are there in the South of England?"

"No, it won't do, Sir Henry--it won't do! Even your voice, though you
sunk it a few notes, was familiar enough to me. But hang it, man! What
did you do it _for_? That's what gets over me. That you should stick up
me, one of your closest friends, a man that worked himself to the bone
when you stood for the division--and all for the sake of a Brummagem
watch and a few shillings--is simply incredible."

"Simply incredible," repeated the magistrate, with a smile.

"And then those actresses, poor little devils, who have to earn all they
get. I followed you down the road, you see. That was a dirty trick, if
ever I heard one. The City shark was different. If a chap must go a-
robbing, that sort of fellow is fair game. But your friend, and then the
girls--well, I say again, I couldn't have believed it."

"Then why believe it?"

"Because it _is_ so."

"Well, you seem to have persuaded yourself to that effect. You don't
seem to have much evidence to lay before any one else."

"I could swear to you in a police-court. What put the lid on it was that
when you were cutting my wire--and an infernal liberty it was!--I saw
that white tuft of yours sticking out from behind your mask."

For the first time an acute observer might have seen some slight sign of
emotion upon the face of the baronet.

"You seem to have a fairly vivid imagination," said