you look at it so," said Jimmy. "Then, so far as the
Professor's concerned, it's from himself we're not protecting him,
just now?"

"Or from the self which is not himself," I suggested.

"That's better," Jimmy agreed, and again fell a-musing. "Sometimes I
think we might get closer to it yet". . . But he did not supply the
definition. After half-a-minute's brooding he woke up, as it were,
with a start. "Could you sail this next week?" he asked.

Well, we sailed, five days later; and there is no need to say more of
this trip than that it panned out a fiasco worse than my first.
At New York we beat up the police; and, later on, worried Mulberry
Street and the great detective service for which the city is famous.
Police and detectives availed us nothing. I knew that by the same
mail which brought his latest letter to me, Foe had drawn 600 pounds
on Norgate; and Norgate had dispatched the money without delay, five
days ahead of us. The address was a hotel at the then fashionable
end of Third Avenue. There we found their names on the register.
Plain sailing enough. Farrell had left, as we calculated (the
detectives helping us), on the day the money presumably arrived, and
at about six in the evening; Foe some fifteen or sixteen hours later.
And, with that, we were up against a wall. Not a trace could be
discovered of either from the moment he had walked out of the hotel.
Farrell, having paid his bill, had walked out, carrying a small
handbag (or 'grip,' as the porter termed it), leaving a portmanteau
behind, with word that he would return next day and fetch it.
We were allowed to examine the portmanteau. It contained some shirts
and collars and two suits of clothes, but no clue whatever--not a
scrap of paper in any of the pockets. Foe had departed leisurably
next morning, with his slight baggage.

Our detective (to do him justice) did his best to earn his money.
He carefully traced out and documented the movements of the two
travellers from one to another of the various addresses I was able to
supply: and he handed in a report, which attested not only his
calligraphy but a high degree of professional zeal. It corresponded
with everything I knew already and decorated it with details which
could only have been accumulated by conscientious research. They
tallied with--they corroborated--they substantiated--they touched
up--the bald facts we already knew. But they did not advance us one
foot beyond the portal