riend here was just drawing my attention
to some of them."

"Quite so! Quite so!" said the doctor, hurriedly. "If you really want
to put anything before me, I can give you a few moments in my
consulting-room."

He led them rapidly into a small but imposing apartment, which seemed
to be built and furnished entirely in red-varnished wood. There was one
desk occupied with carefully docketed papers; and there were several
chairs of the red-varnished wood--though of different shape. All along
the wall ran something that might have been a bookcase, only that it was
not filled with books, but with flat, oblong slabs or cases of the same
polished dark-red consistency. What those flat wooden cases were they
could form no conception.

The doctor sat down with a polite impatience on his professional perch;
MacIan remained standing, but Turnbull threw himself almost with luxury
into a hard wooden arm-chair.

"This is a most absurd business, Doctor," he said, "and I am ashamed to
take up the time of busy professional men with such pranks from outside.
The plain fact is, that he and I and a pack of silly men and girls have
organized a game across this part of the country--a sort of combination
of hare and hounds and hide and seek--I dare say you've heard of it. We
are the hares, and, seeing your high wall look so inviting, we tumbled
over it, and naturally were a little startled with what we found on the
other side."

"Quite so!" said the doctor, mildly. "I can understand that you were
startled."

Turnbull had expected him to ask what place was the headquarters of the
new exhilarating game, and who were the male and female enthusiasts who
had brought it to such perfection; in fact, Turnbull was busy making up
these personal and topographical particulars. As the doctor did not ask
the question, he grew slightly uneasy, and risked the question: "I hope
you will accept my assurance that the thing was an accident and that no
intrusion was meant."

"Oh, yes, sir," replied the doctor, smiling, "I accept everything that
you say."

"In that case," said Turnbull, rising genially, "we must not further
interrupt your important duties. I suppose there will be someone to let
us out?"

"No," said the doctor, still smiling steadily and pleasantly, "there
will be no one to let you out."

"Can we let ourselves out, then?" asked Turnbull, in some surprise.

"Why, of course not," said the beaming scientist; "think how dangerous
that wou