o doubt that he
will be able to tell you something about me."

He turned to the inspector.

"Don't you think you had better send a man up to Royal Crescent," he
said, "to ask Dr. Mainwaring? There _may_ be a mistake, you know. It
would be safer."

I could see that the inspector was very unwilling to admit the
possibility of a mistake; he was, however, overruled by the man who was
writing in the book, and who appeared to be a person in authority.

"Shapland," he said to a waiting constable, "go up to Dr. Mainwaring's
and ask if he knows a person of the name of Anstruther."

"You'd better take one of my cards there with you," I suggested, "then
he'll know who you mean."

The inspector gave me a scathing look, but gave the man one of the
cards out of my case.

I think they were undecided then as to whether they would lock me up or
not, but eventually made up their minds on the side of prudence.

I was allowed to sit by the fire.

Within half an hour a motor came puffing up to the police station, and
Dr. Mainwaring entered.

"My dear Mr. Anstruther," he inquired breathlessly, "whatever is the
matter?"

In a few brief sentences I unloaded the burden of my wrongs.

"Why, there must be some mistake!" cried Mainwaring. "I'll just go off
and see the chief constable, he's a particular friend of mine."

When he had gone, the faces of my guardians grew visibly longer; one of
them fetched me an armchair out of the office.

The chief constable soon put matters right.

"This gentleman is staying at the Magnifique," he announced, "he is
well known to Dr. Mainwaring, and, in fact, the doctor will answer for
his appearance; what more do you want, Mr. Inspector?"

The inspector wanted nothing more.

Within five minutes I was sitting by a glorious fire in a private room
at the Magnifique, discussing the whole matter with the chief constable
and Dr. Mainwaring.

But before I left the station, I put a query to Inspector Bull, junior.

"What have you done about the old lady?" I asked.

The officer assumed some shreds of dignity, even in his discomfiture.

"You may have thought us a bit forgetful, sir," he observed, "but I
assure you, both the railway stations have been under careful
observation from the time of my being able to touch a telephone."

"Thank you," I said; but it appeared to me that under the circumstances
they might just as profitably have watched the Pump Room or the Baths.

CHAPTER V

AR