connection
with Jill....

That Mr. Leslie Trunk should meet her himself was quite in order.
That, having thus put his neck into the noose, he should proceed to
adjust the rope about his dew-lap, argued an unexpected generosity.

'Yes, he had sent the wire. He had taken that responsibility. How was
Piers? Well, there was plenty of hope.' He patted her delicate hand.
'She must be brave, of course.... Yes, he had just left him. He was
in a nursing-home--crazy to see her. They would go there at once.'

We all went 'there' at once--including Piers, Duke of Padua.

Mr. Leslie Trunk, Senor Don Fedriani, and the two police-officers
shared the same taxi.

'There' we were joined by Mrs. Trunk.

The meeting was not cordial, neither was the house a nursing-home. I
do not know what it was. A glance at the proportions of the blackamoor
who opened the door suggested that it was a bastile.

* * * * *

It was thirty hours later that Berry pushed back his chair.

It was a glorious day, and, viewed from the verandah of the Club-house,
that smiling pleasaunce, the rolling plain of Billere was beckoning
more genially than ever.

So soon as our luncheon had settled, we were to prove its promise for
the last time.

"Yes," said Berry, "puerile as it may seem, I assumed you were coming
back. My assumption was so definite that I didn't even get out. For
one thing, Death seemed very near, and the close similarity which the
slot I was occupying bore to a coffin, had all along been too
suggestive to be ignored. Secondly, from my coign of vantage I had a
most lovely view of the pavement outside the station. I never remember
refuse looking so superb....

"Well, I don't know how long I waited, but when it seemed certain that
you were--er--detained, I emerged from my shell. I didn't like leaving
the car unattended, but as there wasn't a lock, I didn't know what to
do. Then I remembered that just as the beaver, when pursued, jettisons
some one of its organs--I forget which--and thus evades capture, so the
careful mechanic removes some vital portion of his engine to thwart the
unauthorised. I had a vague idea that the part in question was of,
with, or from the magneto. I had not even a vague idea that the latter
was protected by a network of live wires, and that one had only to
stretch out one's finger to induce a spark about a foot long and a
shock from which one will never wholly recover.... I