ld thee your way to accommodating uth, we thould be greatly obliged."

Before I could reply--

"We can get there by half-past two," said Berry, speaking slowly and
distinctly, "if--_if we go through Ramilly._"

Now, Ramilly was a great enclosure, and could be entered from the
by-road down which the trolley had come. _But it was not on the way to
Brooch._

With the greatest difficulty I repressed a start. Then I leaned forward
as if to examine the dash, but in reality to conceal my excitement....

_Apparently guileless, my brother-in-law's protasis was nothing less
than a deliberate direction to me to postpone Mr. Dunkelsbaum's arrival
at Brooch until Merry Down was no longer in the market._

My heart began to beat violently....

Berry was speaking again.

"Wait half a minute, and we'll change over." He turned to Adele. "Will
you sit in front with Boy?"

As the change was being made, Mr. Dunkelsbaum advanced.

I have seldom set eyes upon a less prepossessing man. To liken him to a
vicious over-fed pug is more than charitable. Smug, purse-proud and
evil, his bloated countenance was most suggestive. There was no pity
about the coarse mouth, which he had twisted into a smile, two deep
sneer lines cut into the unwholesome pallor of his cheeks, from under
drooping lids two beady eyes shifted their keen appraising glance from
me to Berry and, for a short second, to Adele. There was about him not a
single redeeming feature, and for the brute's pompous carriage alone I
could have kicked him heartily.

The clothes were like unto the man.

From beneath a silk-faced overcoat, which he wore unbuttoned, the rich
contour of a white waistcoat thrust its outrageous way, spurning the
decent shelter of a black tail-coat and making the thick striped legs
look shorter than ever. A diamond pin winked in the satin tie, and a
black bowler hat and patent-leather boots mercifully covered, the one
his crown, and the others his short fat feet.

My gentleman raised his hat and removed a cigar from his mouth before
speaking in a thick voice and with a strong foreign accent.

"My segretary 'as tol' you of my agsident, yes. I voz much oblige' vor a
lif' to Brrrrooch. These gattle"--contemptuously he pointed to the
waggoner and his great beasts, to whose common sagacity he owed his
life--"should not allowed be on der roats, no. Ach, so. It voz all
wrong."

"Quite so," said Berry. "I think they're worse than pedestrians. If I
had my w