last cigarette so far from where you dropped it that you won't be
able to use it as a guide. So, if you don't really know where you
found the paper, you'll save my time by saying so." Instead of
being confused by the test, the man was amused by it. He laughed
appreciatively admitted. "You've caught me out fair, governor," "I
Want the 'arf-crown, and I dropped the cigarette as near the place
as I could. But I can't do it again. It was this way," he
explained. "I wasn't taking notice of the houses. I was walking
along looking into the gutter for stumps. I see this paper wrapped
about something round. 'It's a copper,' I thinks, 'jucked out of a
winder to a organ-grinder.' I snatches it, and runs. I didn't take
no time to look at the houses. But it wasn't so far from where I
showed you; about the middle house in the street and on the left
'and side."

Ford had never considered the man as a serious element in the
problem. He believed him to know as little of the matter as he
professed to know. But it was essential he should keep that little
to himself.

"No one will pay you for talking," Ford pointed out, "and I'll pay
you to keep quiet. So, if you say nothing concerning that note, at
the end of two weeks, I'll leave two pounds for you with James, at
the Embassy."

The man, who believed Ford to be an agent of the police, was only
too happy to escape on such easy terms. After Ford had given him a
pound on account, they parted.

From Wimpole Street the amateur detective went to the nearest