Rothschild and
others of the directors visited him again, but our friend was deaf, dumb
and blind, and they were foiled. In time two Pinkerton detectives had
arrived in London, and by a series of lucky hits soon began to let in
some light on the business.

In searching Noyes the English police had found his garments were made
by a certain London tailor who had several establishments. They brought
the foremen and salesmen down to see him, and none could identify him;
but the American detectives went over the ground again, and discovered
that the London officers had missed one branch store. This was the one
Noyes had patronized. They remembered him as a customer who had, when
ordering garments, given the name of Bedford. This in itself was a bad
point against Noyes, and the New York men wanted very much to make him
talk, and had they been permitted to adopt the vigorous American methods
they might have succeeded.

A salesman remembered seeing Noyes or Bedford one day walking in Mayfair
with a gentleman who really was Mac, of whom he gave a good description,
and taking the clerk the detectives started out to make a house-to-house
investigation. Now, No. 1 Mayfair, the first house they entered, was the
residence of a famous London doctor by the name of Payson Hewett, and
Mac had been a patient of his. But Hewett knew absolutely nothing about
him save only his name and the address he gave, Westminster Palace
Hotel. The detectives were elated, and flew to this hotel, but as Mac
had never been a guest they could learn nothing; still they had cause
for rejoicing. Here was Noyes giving a fictitious name to a tailor and
in company with an elegantly dressed American, who gave a fictitious
address to his surgeon. And they were well satisfied that whenever the
matter was dug out it would be found that the elegantly dressed
stranger, as well as the clerk, had a hand in the business. Payson
Hewett stated that Mac said he was a medical graduate from an American
university, and said that, no doubt, he spoke the truth, as he had a
perfect knowledge of medical subjects.

Here they were getting matters down pretty fine, and cabled all the
facts to America with orders to look Mac up, also his friends. This
information was the fruit of hard work--many blind trails had been
followed that ran nowhere.

In the mean time George and Mac had determined to return to America. The
last thing Mac did before leaving his lodgings in St. James' plac