hat I am not in much form for visitors just now."

We assured him that we fully understood, and, having wished him
"Good-evening," pursued our way towards the village.

"The sergeant is off to get a warrant, I suppose," I observed.

"Yes; and mighty anxious lest his man should be off before he can
execute it. But he is fishing in deeper waters than he thinks, Jervis.
This is a very singular and complicated case; one of the strangest, in
fact, that I have ever met. I shall follow its development with deep
interest."

"The sergeant seems pretty cocksure, all the same," I said.

"He is not to blame for that," replied Thorndyke. "He is acting on the
obvious appearances, which is the proper thing to do in the first place.
Perhaps his notebook contains more than I think it does. But we shall
see."

When we entered the village I stopped to settle some business with the
chemist, who acted as Dr. Cooper's dispenser, suggesting to Thorndyke
that he should walk on to the house; but when I emerged from the shop
some ten minutes later he was waiting outside, with a smallish
brown-paper parcel under each arm. Of one of these parcels I insisted on
relieving him, in spite of his protests, but when he at length handed it
to me its weight completely took me by surprise.

"I should have let them send this home on a barrow," I remarked.

"So I should have done," he replied, "only I did not wish to draw
attention to my purchase, or give my address."

Accepting this hint I refrained from making any inquiries as to the
nature of the contents (although I must confess to considerable
curiosity on the subject), and on arriving home I assisted him to
deposit the two mysterious parcels in his room.

When I came downstairs a disagreeable surprise awaited me. Hitherto the
long evenings had been spent by me in solitary and undisturbed enjoyment
of Dr. Cooper's excellent library, but to-night a perverse fate decreed
that I must wander abroad, because, forsooth, a preposterous farmer, who
resided in a hamlet five miles distant, had chosen the evening of my
guest's arrival to dislocate his bucolic elbow. I half hoped that
Thorndyke would offer to accompany me, but he made no such suggestion,
and in fact seemed by no means afflicted at the prospect of my absence.

"I have plenty to occupy me while you are away," he said cheerfully; and
with this assurance to comfort me I mounted my bicycle and rode off
somewhat sulkily along the dark road.