s! Do you seriously think he
would sit there and knowingly watch his man playing pool under his
nose? Well, he might; he's a cool hand, Mackenzie; but I'm not cool
enough to win a pool under such conditions. At least I don't think I
am; it would be interesting to see. The situation wasn't free from
strain as it was, though I knew he wasn't thinking of us. Crowley told
me all about it after dinner, you see, and then I'd seen one of the men
for myself this afternoon. You thought it was a detective who made me
turn tail at that inn. I really don't know why I didn't tell you at
the time, but it was just the opposite. That loud, red-faced brute is
one of the cleverest thieves in London, and I once had a drink with him
and our mutual fence. I was an Eastender from tongue to toe at the
moment, but you will understand that I don't run unnecessary risks of
recognition by a brute like that."

"He's not alone, I hear."

"By no means; there's at least one other man with him; and it's
suggested that there may be an accomplice here in the house."

"Did Lord Crowley tell you so?"

"Crowley and the champagne between them. In confidence, of course,
just as your girl told you; but even in confidence he never let on
about Mackenzie. He told me there was a detective in the background,
but that was all. Putting him up as a guest is evidently their big
secret, to be kept from the other guests because it might offend them,
but more particularly from the servants whom he's here to watch.
That's my reading of the situation, Bunny, and you will agree with me
that it's infinitely more interesting than we could have imagined it
would prove."

"But infinitely more difficult for us," said I, with a sigh of
pusillanimous relief. "Our hands are tied for this week, at all
events."

"Not necessarily, my dear Bunny, though I admit that the chances are
against us. Yet I'm not so sure of that either. There are all sorts
of possibilities in these three-cornered combinations. Set A to watch
B, and he won't have an eye left for C. That's the obvious theory, but
then Mackenzie's a very big A. I should be sorry to have any boodle
about me with that man in the house. Yet it would be great to nip in
between A and B and score off them both at once! It would be worth a
risk, Bunny, to do that; it would be worth risking something merely to
take on old hands like B and his men at their own old game! Eh, Bunny?
That would be something like a