now to be ascertained is whether anything has been seen or heard
of him lately."

"Not to my knowledge," replied the stationmaster.

"He is not known to have been down the line any time yesterday,
for instance?"

The station-master shook his head.

"The East Anglian, sir," said he, "is about the last place where
he would dare to show himself. Why, there isn't a station-master,
there isn't guard, there isn't a porter, who doesn't know
Mr. Dwerrihouse by sight as well as he knows his own face in the
looking-glass, or who wouldn't telegrapg for the police as soon
as he had set eyes on him at any point along the line. Bless you,
sir! there's been a standing order out against him ever since the
25th of September last."

"And yet," pursued my friend, "a gentleman who travelled down yesterday
from London to Clayborough by the afternoon express testifies that
he saw Mr. Dwerrihouse in the train, and that Mr. Dwerrinhouse
alighted at Blackwater station."

"Quite impossible, sir," replied the station-master promptly.

"Why impossible?"

"Because there is no station along the line where he is so well
known or where he would run so great a risk. It would be just