er intimate and
minutely explanatory letter to Miss Gibson, in which I even mentioned
the hour of our return as showing the impossibility of my keeping my
engagement. Not that I had the smallest fear of her taking offence, for
it is an evidence of my respect and regard for her that I cancelled the
appointment without a momentary doubt that she would approve of my
action; but it was pleasant to write to her at length and to feel the
intimacy of keeping her informed of the details of my life.

The case, when we came to inquire into it on the spot, turned out to be
a suicide of the most transparent type; whereat both Thorndyke and I
were, I think, a little disappointed--he at having apparently done so
little for a very substantial fee, and I at having no opportunity for
applying my recently augmented knowledge.

"Yes," said my colleague, as we rolled ourselves up in our rugs in
adjacent corners of the railway carriage, "it has been a flat affair,
and the whole thing could have been managed by the local solicitor. But
it is not a waste of time after all, for, you see, I have to do many a
day's work for which I get not a farthing of payment, nor even any
recognition, so that I do not complain if I occasionally find myself
receiving more payment than my actual services merit. And as to you, I
take it that you have acquired a good deal of valuable knowledge on the
subject of suicide, and knowledge, as the late Lord Bacon remarked with
more truth than originality, is power."

To this I made no reply, having just lit my pipe and feeling uncommonly
drowsy; and, my companion having followed my example, we smoked in
silence, becoming more and more somnolent, until the train drew up in
the terminus and we turned out, yawning and shivering, on to the
platform.

"Bah!" exclaimed Thorndyke, drawing his rug round his shoulders; "this
is a cheerless hour--a quarter past one. See how chilly and miserable
all these poor devils of passengers look. Shall we cab it or walk?"

"I think a sharp walk would rouse our circulation after sitting huddled
up in the carriage for so long," I answered.

"So do I," said Thorndyke, "so let us away; hark forward! and also Tally
Ho! In fact one might go so far as to say Yoicks! That gentleman appears
to favour the strenuous life, if one may judge by the size of his
sprocket-wheel."

He pointed to a bicycle that was drawn up by the kerb in the approach--a
machine of the road-racer type, with an enormo