office, full of astounded clerks, who had all known me well for years.

We got into a cab and were driven to Paddington Station, reaching it
about dusk, much to my satisfaction, as I should not at all have
appreciated making my appearance in such a place with the two police
officers.

We got into a third class compartment all to ourselves right at the end
of the train, near the engine, and there I sat between the two men, who
hardly exchanged a word the whole way, but who sat trying to read
newspapers by the bad light. They would hold no conversation with me.

When we got to Bath they hurried me quickly down the stairs into a fly,
and then we drove straight through the town.

As we passed the police station and my hotel--towards which I cast
longing glances, for it was not far off dinner time--I asked a question
of the tall, fresh-coloured man.

"I understood that you were going to take me to the police station?" I
said.

The man shook his head.

"We are taking you to the prison," he said, "for the night. You will
be brought before the magistrates in the morning."

I sank back in the corner of the fly thoroughly dejected, and the
vehicle drove out by what I knew to be the Warminster Road. We now
left the lights of the town behind, and then the journey was entirely
between two hedgerows, which bordered the road, with an occasional
field gate by way of variety--all else beyond was blank night, for
there was no moon.

My two guardians began to show signs of fatigue, not unmixed with a
certain disgust, at the length of the journey.

They began yawning and stretching their arms, with very little regard
for my comfort.

When at last the fly pulled up with a jerk, after a good deal of
bumping over a rough road, the two men were very unceremonious in
ordering me to quit the vehicle.

"Now then, Ugly," remarked the fresh-coloured man with a push of his
foot, which was remarkably like a kick, "out you get!"

He stepped out himself and I followed, knowing full well it was useless
to resist, but I made a mental resolve that I would report him.

Once outside the fly, I found myself apparently at the foot of a tower,
a door stood open in front of me, and on the doorstep a man holding a
lantern.

I was, however, given very little time to contemplate this scene; the
big man seized my right arm, and his companion my left; between them,
they rushed me up a flight of steps immediately inside the tower.

These step