e
asked him to hire the horse and cab until this morning, when they would
be returned to him at that point. Thompson naturally demurred; whereupon
the man offered to deposit with him in cash the value of the horse and
cab, to be refunded upon their return in the morning less fifty dollars
for their hire. This was too good to let slip and Thompson acquiesced,
fixing the value at three hundred and fifty dollars, which sum the man
skinned off a roll of yellow-backs. Then the fare buttoned his coat
around him, jumped on the box, and drove east on Massachusetts Avenue.
This morning the horse and cab were backed up to the curb at their
customary stand in Dupont Circle, where they were found by officer
Murphy shortly after daybreak; before he could report the absence of the
driver, Thompson came up and explained."

"Can Thompson describe the man?" Harleston asked.

"Merely that he was clean-shaved, medium-sized, somewhat stout, wore
evening clothes, and was, apparently, a gentleman. Thompson thinks
however, that he could readily recognize the man, so we should let him
have a look at the fellow that's under guard in your apartment."

"It isn't he," Harleston explained. "He's slender, with a mustache and
imperial. It was Marston, likely. Did any of your officers see cab No.
333 between nine P.M. and this morning?"

"The reports are clean of No. 333, but we are investigating now. It's
not likely, however. Meanwhile, if there is anything else I can do, Mr.
Harleston--"

"You can listen to the balance of the episode--beginning at half-past
one this morning, when I found the cab deserted at Eighteenth Street and
Massachusetts Avenue, with the horse lying in the roadway, asleep in the
shafts...."

"What do you wish the police to do, Mr. Harleston?" the Superintendent
asked at the end.

"Nothing, until I've seen the Lady of Peacock Alley. Then I'll likely
know something definite--whether to keep hands off or to get busy."

"Shan't we even try to locate the two men, in preparation for your
getting busy?"

"H'm!" reflected Harleston. "Do it very quietly then. You see, I don't
know whom you're likely to locate, nor whether we want to locate them."

"The men who visited your apartment are not of the profession, Mr.
Harleston."

"It's their profession that's bothering me!" Harleston laughed. "Why are
three Americans engaged in what bears every appearance of being a
diplomatic matter, and of which our State Department knows no