knowledge of you. I recognize now that some impish contriving of
circumstances forced this knowledge upon me. The sudden downpour of
rain, and the fact that I was delayed by a slight accident to my cab,
conspired with the apparently simple chance which led me to overhear
the conversation between Miss Forbes and yourself. I tried hard to
baffle the detectives--"

"Again I ask 'Why?'"

Theydon was rapidly being wound up to a pitch of excited resentment.

"Why?" he cried. "Was I not your guest? How could I come from a house
where I had been admitted to a delightful intimacy and tell the
representatives of the law that my host was the man they were looking
for?"

During some seconds Forbes bent his eyes on the floor, seemingly in
deep thought.

"Theydon," he said at last, looking up in his direct way, "I am your
senior by a good many years-- am old enough, as the saying goes, to be
your father. I may venture, therefore, to give you a piece of sound
advice. Pack a kit-bag, catch the afternoon boat train for Boulogne,
and go for a walking tour in Normandy and Brittany. When I was your
age and a junior in a bank I had to take my holidays in May; each year
I tramped that corner of France. I recommend it as a playground. It
will appeal to your literary instincts, and it has the immeasurable
advantage just now of being practically as remote from London as the
Sahara."