observed him from our sitting-room window crossing the
gravelled space from Crown Office Row and evidently bearing down on our
chambers. For the fact is that I was awaiting the arrival of Juliet, and
should greatly have preferred to be alone at the moment, seeing that
Thorndyke had already gone out. It is true that my fair enslaver was not
due for nearly half-an-hour, but then, who could say how long Anstey
would stay, or what embarrassments might arise from my efforts to
escape? By all of which it may be perceived that my disease had reached
a very advanced stage, and that I was unequal to those tactics of
concealment that are commonly attributed to the ostrich.

A sharp rap of the knocker announced the arrival of the disturber of my
peace, and when I opened the door Anstey walked in with the air of a man
to whom an hour more or less is of no consequence whatever. He shook my
hand with mock solemnity, and, seating himself upon the edge of the
table, proceeded to roll a cigarette with exasperating deliberation.

"I infer," said he, "that our learned brother is practising parlour
magic upstairs, or peradventure he has gone on a journey?"

"He has a consultation this morning," I answered. "Was he expecting
you?"

"Evidently not, or he would have been here. No, I just looked in to ask
a question about the case of your friend Hornby. You know it comes on
for trial next week?"

"Yes; Thorndyke told me. What do you think of Hornby's prospects? Is he
going to be convicted, or will he get an acquittal?"

"_He_ will be entirely passive," replied Anstey, "but _we_"--here he
slapped his chest impressively--"are going to secure an acquittal. You
will be highly entertained, my learned friend, and Mr. The Enemy will be
excessively surprised." He inspected the newly-made cigarette with a
critical air and chuckled softly.

"You seem pretty confident," I remarked.

"I am," he answered, "though Thorndyke considers failure
possible--which, of course, it is if the jury-box should chance to be
filled with microcephalic idiots and the judge should prove incapable of
understanding simple technical evidence. But we hope that neither of
these things will happen, and, if they do not, we feel pretty safe. By
the way, I hope I am not divulging your principal's secrets?"

"Well," I replied, with a smile, "you have been more explicit than
Thorndyke ever has."

"Have I?" he exclaimed, with mock anxiety; "then I must swear you to
secrecy.