the man offered to deposit with him in cash the value of the horse and
cab, to be refunded upon their return in the morning less fifty dollars
for their hire. This was too good to let slip and Thompson acquiesced,
fixing the value at three hundred and fifty dollars, which sum the man
skinned off a roll of yellow-backs. Then the fare buttoned his coat
around him, jumped on the box, and drove east on Massachusetts Avenue.
This morning the horse and cab were backed up to the curb at their
customary stand in Dupont Circle, where they were found by officer
Murphy shortly after daybreak; before he could report the absence of the
driver, Thompson came up and explained."

"Can Thompson describe the man?" Harleston asked.

"Merely that he was clean-shaved, medium-sized, somewhat stout, wore
evening clothes, and was, apparently, a gentleman. Thompson thinks
however, that he could readily recognize the man, so we should let him
have a look at the fellow that's under guard in your apartment."

"It isn't he," Harleston explained. "He's slender, with a mustache and
imperial. It was Marston, likely. Did any of your officers see cab No.
333 between nine P.M. and this morning?"

"The reports are clean of No. 333, but we are investigating now. It's
not likely, however. Meanwhile, if there is anything else I can do, Mr.
Harleston--"

"You can listen to the balance of the episode--beginning at half-past
one this morning, when I found the cab deserted at Eighteenth Street and
Massachusetts Avenue, with the horse lying in the roadway, asleep in the
shafts...."