age of taking refreshment and asking questions. It was
then late evening, and I was in bed in the Sydney Hospital. There had
been no earthquake, nor yet even the collapse of an archway. Nothing
at all, in fact, except that I had been smitten over the head with an
iron bar. There had been two blows, I believe; and, if so, the second
must really have been a work of supererogation, for I was conscious
only of the one crash.

In one illuminating instant I recalled my visit to the bank, my two
hundred and forty-seven pounds ten shillings, my intended visit to the
shipping-office, the approaching end and climax of my work in Sydney
and Dursley--six years of it.

'Nurse,' I said, with sudden, low urgency, 'will you please see if my
pocket-book is in my coat?'

'Everything is taken out of patients' pockets and locked up for
safety,' she said.

'Well, will you please inquire what amount of money was taken from my
pockets, nurse. It's--it's rather important,' I told her.

The nurse urged the importance of my not thinking of business just
now; but after a few more words she went out, gave some one a message,
and, returning, said my matter would be seen to at once.

It seemed to me that a very long time passed. My head was full of a
tremendous ache. But my thoughts were active, and full of gloomy
foreboding. Just as I was about to make another appeal to the nurse,
the doctor came bustling down the ward with another man, a plain
clothes policeman, I thought, with recollection of sundry newspaper
reporting experiences. The surmise was correct. The doctor had a look
at my head--his fingers were furnished apparently with red-hot steel
prongs--and held my right wrist between his fingers. The police
officer sat down heavily beside the bed, drew out a shiny-covered
note-book, and began, in an astoundingly deep voice, to ask me
laboriously futile questions.

'Look here!' I said, after a few minutes, 'this is all very well, but
would you be kind enough to tell me what money was found in my
pockets?'

'Two sovereigns, one half sovereign, seven shillings in silver, and
tuppence in bronze,' said the sepulchral policeman, as though he
thought 'tuppence' was usually 'in' marble, or _lignum vitae_, or
something of the sort. 'Also one silver watch with leather guard, one
plated cigarette-case, and----'

'No pocket-book?' I interrupted despondently. The policeman brightened
at that.

'So there was a pocket-book? I thought so,' the bri