no doubt, and after all the telephoning and hunting up of directories
that he himself had done personally that very morning, Mr. Cleek would be
feeling rather "off it" if he turned up too late.

Petrie took a few steps up and down, and his eyes roamed the Strand
leisurely. He came to a sudden halt, as a red limousine--_the_ red
limousine he knew so well--whirled up to the pavement's edge, stopped
in front of him with a grinding of brakes, a door flashed open, and he
heard the sound of a sharp order given in that one unmistakable voice.
Mr. Cleek was there, followed by Dollops, close at his heels, and looking
as though they had torn through hell itself to get there in time.

Petrie took a hurried step forward and swung back the big iron gate still
farther.

"In time, Petrie?" Cleek asked breathlessly.

"Just about, sir. Near shave, though, from what I see of the people
a-comin' out. 'Eard the case 'ad gone against Sir Nigel, sir--poor chap.
'Ere, you, Dollops--"

But Dollops was gone in his master's wake, in his arms a huge, ungainly
bundle that looked like a stove-pipe wrapped up in brown paper, gone
through the courtroom door, without so much as passing the time of day
with an old pal. Petrie felt distinctly hurt about it, and sauntered back
to his place with his smile gone, while Cleek, hurrying through the
crowded court room and passing, by the sheer power of his name, the
various court officials who would have stopped him, stopped only as he
reached the space before the judge's bench. Already the jury were filing
in, one by one, and taking their seats. The black cap lay beside Mr.
Justice Grainger's spectacles, a sinister emblem, having its response in
the white-faced man who stood in the dock, awaiting the verdict upon his
life.

Cleek saw it all in one glance, and then spoke.

"Your Lordship," he said, addressing the judge, who looked at him with
raised eyebrows, "may I address the court?" The barristers arose,
scandalized at the interruption, knowing not whether advantage for
prosecution or defence lay in what this man had to say. The clerk of the
court stood aghast ready to order the court officers to eject the
interloper who dared interrupt the course of the majestic law. All stood
poised for a breathless moment, held in check by the power of the man
Cleek, or by uncertainty as to the action of the judge.

A tense pause, and then the court broke the silence, "You may speak."

"Your Lordship, may it pl