they is--you always gets a sort of
solemncholy look in the eyes; and you gets white about the gills, and
your lips has a pucker to 'em that I don't like to see."

"Tommy rot! Imagination's a splendid thing for a detective to possess,
Dollops, but don't let yours run away with you in this fashion, my lad,
or you'll never rise above what you are. Toddle along now, and look out
for Mr. Narkom's arrival. It's after nine already, so he'll soon be
here."

"Anybody a-comin' with him, sir?"

"I don't know--he didn't say. Cut along, now; I'm busy!" said Cleek.
Nevertheless, when Dollops had gone and the door was shut and he had the
room to himself again, and, if he really did have any business on hand,
there was no reason in the world why he should not have set about it, he
remained sitting at the table and idly drumming upon it with his finger
tips, a deep ridge between his brows and a far-away expression in his
fixed, unwinking eyes. And so he was still sitting when, something like
twenty minutes later, the sharp "Toot-toot!" of a motor horn sounded.

Narkom's note lay on the table close to his elbow. He took it up,
crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into his waste basket. "A foreign
government affair," he said with a curious one-sided smile. "A strange
coincidence, to be sure!" Then, as if obeying an impulse, he opened the
drawer, looked at the litter of things he had swept into it, shut it up
again and locked it securely, putting the key into his pocket and rising
to his feet. Two minutes later, when Narkom pushed open the door and
entered the room, he found Cleek leaning against the edge of the
mantelpiece and smoking a cigarette with the air of one whose feet trod
always upon rose petals, and who hadn't a thought beyond the affairs of
the moment, nor a care for anything but the flavour of Egyptian tobacco.

"Ah, my dear fellow, you can't think what a relief it was to catch you.
I had but a moment in which to dash off the note, and I was on thorns
with fear that it would miss you; that on a glorious night like this
you'd be off for a pull up the river or something of that sort," said
the superintendent, as he bustled in and shook hands with him. "You are
such a beggar for getting off by yourself and mooning."

"Well, to tell you the truth, Mr. Narkom, I came within an ace of doing
the very thing you speak of," replied Cleek. "It's full moon, for one
thing, and it's primrose time for another. Happily for your desire