we would rather not have anything to do with them. It so happens that we
are both interested in the gentleman that you saw getting into the cab
the other night. I have read your letter in the paper, and I am quite
prepared to believe every word of it. The only thing we want to know is
whether you saw the man in the cab--"

"Which one?" Taylor asked. "There were two blokes in the cab."

"This is very interesting," Venner murmured. "I shall be greatly obliged
to you if you will describe both of them."

"I couldn't describe the one, guv'nor," Taylor replied. "His back was to
me all the time, and when you come to think of it, I wasn't quite so
clear in the head as I might have been. But I caught a glimpse of the
other man's face; as he looked out of the cab the light of the lamp shone
on his face. He'd a big cloak on, as far as I could judge, with the
collar turned up about his throat, and a soft hat on his head. He knocks
the hat off looking out of the cab window, then I see as 'is head was
bald like a bloomin' egg, and yellow, same as if he had been painted. I
can't tell you any more than that, not if you was to give me another
'alf-sovereign on the top of the first one."

"Just another question," Gurdon said. "Then we won't bother you any more.
About what age do you suppose the man was?"

Taylor paused thoughtfully for a moment before he replied.

"Well, I should think he was about fifty-five or sixty," he said. "Looked
like some sort of a foreigner."