I shall try to believe you
are more idiot than knave. At present I am doubtful which way the
balance tips."

Furneaux stalked off rapidly, leaving the other to fume with
indignation as he followed. With his almost uncanny gift of
imaginative reasoning, the Jersey man had guessed the purport of
Fenley's talk with Sylvia in the garden. He had watched the two from
a window of the dining-room, and had read correctly the girl's
ill-concealed scorn, not quite devoid of dread, as revealed by face
and gesture. To make sure, he waylaid her in the hall while she was
hurrying to her own apartments. Then he sauntered after Robert Fenley,
and only bided his time to empty upon him the vials of his wrath.

He had taken the oaf's measure with a nice exactitude. To trounce him
without frightening him also was only inviting a complaint to the
Commissioner, but Furneaux was well aware that the longer Robert
Fenley's dull brain dwelt on the significance of that address in
Battersea being known to the police, the less ready would he be
to stir a hornets' nest into activity by showing his resentment.
Obviously, Furneaux's methods were not those advocated in the Police
Manual. Any other man who practiced them would risk dismissal, but the
"Little 'Un" of the Yard was a law unto himself.

Meanwhile, he was hurrying after the "Big 'Un," (such, it will be
recalled, were the respective nicknames Furneaux and Winter had
received in the Department) who had alighted from the car, and was
listening to Hilton Fenley berating a servant for having permitted
Trenholme to make known his presence to Miss Manning. The man,
however, protested that he had done nothing of the sort. Miss Sylvia
had been called to the lodge telephone, and the footman's acquaintance
with the facts went no farther. Smothering his annoyance as best he
could, Fenley rang up Mrs. Bates and asked for particulars. When the
woman explained what had happened, he rejoined Winter in the hall,
paying no heed to Furneaux, who was entering at the moment.

"That artist fellow who was trespassing in the park this morning--if
nothing worse is proved against him--must have a superb cheek," he
said angrily. "He actually had the impertinence to ask Miss Manning to
meet him, no doubt offering some plausible yarn as an excuse. I hope
you'll test his story thoroughly, Mr. Winter. At the least, he should
be forced to say what he was doing in these grounds at such an unusual
hour."

"He is putti