Leander. "I won't
throw up just yet.")

"I suppose it's the ring," he replied innocently. "You don't mean to say
you've got it back for me, Mr. Inspector? Well, I _am_ glad."

"I thought you set no particular value on the ring when I met you last?"
said the other.

"Why," said Leander, "I may have said so out of politeness, not wanting
to trouble you; but, as you said it was the statue you were after
chiefly, why, I don't mind admitting that I shall be thankful indeed to
get that ring back. And so you've brought it, have you, sir?"

He said this so naturally, having called in all his powers of
dissimulation to help him in his extremity, that the detective was
favourably impressed. He had already felt a suspicion that he had been
sent here on a fool's errand, and no one could have looked less like a
daring criminal, and the trusted confederate of still more daring
ruffians, than did Leander at that moment.

"Heard anything of Potter lately?" he asked, wishing to try the effect
of a sudden _coup_.

"I don't know the gentleman," said Leander, firmly; for, after all, he
did not.

"Now, take care. He's been seen to frequent this house. We know more
than you think, young man."

"Oh! if he bluffs, _I_ can bluff too," passed through Leander's mind.
"Inspector Bilbow," he said, "I give you my sacred honour, I've never
set eyes on him. He can't have been here, not with my knowledge. It's my
belief you're trying to make out something against me. If you're a
friend, Inspector, you'll tell me straight out."

"That's not our way of doing business; and yet, hang it, I ought to know
an honest man by this time! Tweddle, I'll drop the investigator, and
speak as man to man. You've been reported to me (never mind by whom) as
the receiver of the stolen Venus--a pal of this very Potter--that's what
I've against you, my man!"

"I know who told you that," said Leander; "it was that Count and his
precious friend Braddle!"

"Oh, you know them, do you? That's an odd guess for an innocent man,
Tweddle!"

"They found me out from inquiries at the gardens," said Leander; "and as
for guessing, it's in this very paper. So it's me they've gone and
implicated, have they? All right. I suppose they're men whose word you'd
go by, wouldn't you, sir--truthful, reliable kind of parties, eh?"

"None of that, Tweddle," said the Inspector, rather uneasily. "We
officers are bound to follow up any clue, no matter where it comes from.
I was informe