t that other man supposed to have escaped from the park?"

"I should think he's far away by this time," opined the Chief Inspector.

The Assistant Commissioner looked hard at him, and rose suddenly, as
though having made up his mind to some course of action. As a matter of
fact, he had that very moment succumbed to a fascinating temptation. The
Chief Inspector heard himself dismissed with instructions to meet his
superior early next morning for further consultation upon the case. He
listened with an impenetrable face, and walked out of the room with
measured steps.

Whatever might have been the plans of the Assistant Commissioner they had
nothing to do with that desk work, which was the bane of his existence
because of its confined nature and apparent lack of reality. It could
not have had, or else the general air of alacrity that came upon the
Assistant Commissioner would have been inexplicable. As soon as he was
left alone he looked for his hat impulsively, and put it on his head.
Having done that, he sat down again to reconsider the whole matter. But
as his mind was already made up, this did not take long. And before
Chief Inspector Heat had gone very far on the way home, he also left the
building.

CHAPTER VII

The Assistant Commissioner walked along a short and narrow street like a
wet, muddy trench, then crossing a very broad thoroughfare entered a
public edifice, and sought speech with a young private secretary (unpaid)
of a great personage.

This fair, smooth-faced young man, whose symmetrically arranged hair gave
him the air of a large and neat schoolboy, met the Assistant
Commissioner's request with a doubtful look, and spoke with bated breath.

"Would he see you? I don't know about that. He has walked over from the
House an hour ago to talk with the permanent Under-Secretary, and now
he's ready to walk back again. He might have sent for him; but he does
it for the sake of a little exercise, I suppose. It's all the exercise
he can find time for while this session lasts. I don't complain; I
rather enjoy these little strolls. He leans on my arm, and doesn't open,
his lips. But, I say, he's very tired, and--well--not in the sweetest of
tempers just now."

"It's in connection with that Greenwich affair."

"Oh! I say! He's very bitter against you people. But I will go and
see, if you insist."

"Do. That's a good fellow," said the Assistant Commissioner.

The unpaid secretary a