ssed that Hewitt feared
that some hasty indiscretion on the part of this terribly wronged man
might endanger his plans. Peytral, however, seemed tractable enough, and
left immediately after them; he had business, he said, which he expected
would occupy him for a day or two, and when it was completed he would
see us again.

As for myself I only remained long enough to ascertain that the police
could find no trace of the direction of Mayes's flight in the immediate
neighbourhood. They had little to aid them. He had gone without a hat,
and his dress was in some degree disordered by his struggle with me; but
the latter defect he might easily have remedied in the courts as he ran,
and they could gather no tidings of a hatless man. So I took my way to
my office, my wrist growing stiffer and more painful as I went, so that
I was not sorry to arrange for another member of the staff to take my
duty for the night, and to get to bed a few hours earlier than usual,
after the day's fatigue and excitement.

II

Going to bed uncommonly soon I woke correspondingly early in the
morning; but I was no earlier than Hewitt, who was at my door, in fact,
ere my breakfast was well begun.

"Well," I asked eagerly, almost before my friend had entered, "have you
got him at last?"

"Not yet," Hewitt answered. "But he did exactly as I had expected.
Plummer and I knocked up the bank manager, who lives over the premises
at the Upper Holloway branch. He was a very decent fellow--rather young
for the post--but he was naturally a bit surprised, possibly irritated,
at being bothered by one and another after office hours. I showed him
the cheque-book, and asked him if it belonged to any customer of his.

"'Why, yes,' he said, examining the numbers, 'I remember this because it
is the first of a new series, and we issued it the day before yesterday
to a new customer. Where did you get it?'

"'We are very anxious to see that customer,' I said. 'Has he been here
this evening?'

"The manager seemed a trifle surprised, but answered readily enough.
'Yes,' he said, 'he was here not an hour ago.'

"'Wanting to draw money?' I asked. But that the manager wouldn't tell
me, of course. So that it was necessary for Plummer to step in and
reveal the facts that this was a police matter, and that he was a
detective-inspector. That made some difference. The manager told us that
our man had opened an account at the bank only two days before; and I'd
like