?"

I nodded, and he turned to Miss Childe.

"That viper," he said, "has stung the fool who feeds him to the tune of
eighty pounds. Shall I faint here or by the hat-stand? Let's be clear
about it. The moment I enter the swoon----"

"Still, as long as it's in the family----" began Jill.

"Exactly," said I. "The main thing is, we've got it. And when you've
heard my tale----"

"Eighty paper pounds," said Berry. "Can you beat it?"

"That'd only be about thirty-five before the War," said Miss Childe in a
shaking voice.

"Yes," said I. "Look at it that way. And what's thirty-five? A
bagatelle, brother, a bagatelle. Now, if we were in Russia----"

"Yes," said Berry grimly, "and if we were in Patagonia, I suppose I
should be up on the deal. You can cut that bit."

Miss Childe and Jill dissolved into peals of merriment.

"That's right," said Berry. "Deride the destitute. Mock at bereavement.
As for you," he added, turning to Jill, "your visit to the Zoo is
indefinitely postponed. Other children shall feel sick in the
monkey-house and be taken to smell the bears. But you, never." He turned
to Miss Childe and laid a hand on her arm. "Shut your eyes, my dear, and
repeat one of Alfred Austin's odes. This place is full of the ungodly."

* * * * *

My determination to carry the tallboy chest to London in the Rolls met
with stern opposition, but in the end I prevailed, and at six o'clock
that evening it was safely housed in Mayfair.

To do him justice, Berry's annoyance was considerably tempered by the
strange story which I unfolded during a belated tea.

The house and park which I had seen we were unable to identify, and the
Post Office Guide was silent as to the whereabouts of Colt. But the
excitement which Daphne's production of a tape-measure aroused was only
exceeded by the depression which was created by our failure to discover
anything unusual about the chest.

We measured the cornice and we measured the plinth. We measured the
frame and we measured the drawers. But if the linear measurements
afforded us little satisfaction, the square measurements revealed
considerably less, while, since no one of us was a mathematician, the
calculation of the cubic capacity proved, not only unprofitable, but
provocative of such bitter arguments and insulting remarks that Daphne
demanded that we should desist.

"All right," said Berry, "if you don't believe me, call in a consulting
engineer. I'