think of sitting down with one of my grooms as breaking bread with one
of that lot; and I shall never get it out of my head that you're a
gentleman going in for this sort of thing as a hobby--never b'Gad! if I
live to be a hundred."

"I hope you will come nearer to doing that than you have to guessing the
truth about me," replied Cleek, with a smile. "Take my word for it,
won't you?--this thing is my profession. I don't do it as a mere hobby:
I live by it--I have no other means of living _but_ by it. I am--what I
am, and nothing more."

"Oh, gammon! Why not tell me at once that you are a winkle stall-keeper
and be done with it? You can't tell a fish that another fish is a
turnip--at least you can't and expect him to believe it. Own up, old
chap. I know a man of birth when I meet him. Tell me who you are,
Cleek--I'll respect it."

"I don't doubt that--the addition is superfluous."

"Then who are you? What are you, Cleek? Eh?"

"What you have called me--'Cleek.' Cleek the detective, Cleek of the
Forty Faces, if you prefer it; but just 'Cleek' and nothing more. Don't
get to building romances about me merely because I have the _instincts_
of a gentleman, Sir Henry. Just simply remember that Nature _does_ make
mistakes sometimes; that she has been known to put a horse's head on a
sheep's shoulders and to make a navvy's son look more royal than a
prince. I am Cleek, the detective--simply Cleek. Let it go at that."

And as there was no alternative, Sir Henry did.

It made no difference in their friendship, however. Police officer or
not, he liked and he respected the man, and made no visit to town
without meeting and entertaining him.

So matters stood between them when on a certain Thursday in mid
September he came up unexpectedly from Wilding Hall and 'phoned through
to Clarges Street, asking Cleek to dine with him that night at the Club
of the Two Services.

Cleek accepted the invitation gladly and was not a little surprised on
arriving to find that, in this instance, dinner was to be served in a
little private room and that a third party was also to partake of it.

"Dear chap, pardon me for taking you unawares," said Sir Henry, as Cleek
entered the private room and found himself in the presence of a
decidedly military-looking man long past middle life, "but the fact is
that immediately after I had telephoned you, I encountered a friend and
a--er--peculiar circumstance arose which impelled me to secure a private