us'?"

"The police, of course!" said the Marquis, and tore off his scalp and
half his face.

The head which emerged was the blonde, well brushed, smooth-haired head
which is common in the English constabulary, but the face was terribly
pale.

"I am Inspector Ratcliffe," he said, with a sort of haste that verged
on harshness. "My name is pretty well known to the police, and I can see
well enough that you belong to them. But if there is any doubt about
my position, I have a card," and he began to pull a blue card from his
pocket.

The Professor gave a tired gesture.

"Oh, don't show it us," he said wearily; "we've got enough of them to
equip a paper-chase."

The little man named Bull, had, like many men who seem to be of a mere
vivacious vulgarity, sudden movements of good taste. Here he certainly
saved the situation. In the midst of this staggering transformation
scene he stepped forward with all the gravity and responsibility of a
second, and addressed the two seconds of the Marquis.

"Gentlemen," he said, "we all owe you a serious apology; but I assure
you that you have not been made the victims of such a low joke as you
imagine, or indeed of anything undignified in a man of honour. You have
not wasted your time; you have helped to save the world. We are not
buffoons, but very desperate men at war with a vast conspiracy. A secret
society of anarchists is hunting us like hares; not such unfortunate
madmen as may here or there throw a bomb through starvation or German
philosophy, but a rich and powerful and fanatical church, a church of
eastern pessimism, which holds it holy to destroy mankind like vermin.
How hard they hunt us you can gather from the fact that we are driven
to such disguises as those for which I apologise, and to such pranks as
this one by which you suffer."

The younger second of the Marquis, a short man with a black moustache,
bowed politely, and said--

"Of course, I accept the apology; but you will in your turn forgive me
if I decline to follow you further into your difficulties, and
permit myself to say good morning! The sight of an acquaintance and
distinguished fellow-townsman coming to pieces in the open air is
unusual, and, upon the whole, sufficient for one day. Colonel Ducroix, I
would in no way influence your actions, but if you feel with me that our
present society is a little abnormal, I am now going to walk back to the
town."

Colonel Ducroix moved mechanically, but then tug