it is my business to help everybody,
but because you were so kind to my boy in South Africa; the letters of
introduction you gave to him were most helpful."

The commissioner's son had been on a hunting trip through Rhodesia and
Barotseland, and a chance meeting at a dinner party with the Rhodesian
millionaire had produced these letters.

"But," continued the official, with a little gesture of despair,
"Scotland Yard has its limitations. We cannot investigate the cause of
intangible fears. If you are threatened we can help you, but the mere
fact that you fancy there is come sort of vague danger would not justify
our taking any action."

John Minute hitched about in his chair.

"What are the police for?" he asked impatiently. "I have enemies, Sir
George. I took a quiet little place in the country, just outside
Eastbourne, to get away from London, and all sorts of new people are
prying round us. There was a new parson called the other day for a
subscription to some boy scouts' movement or other. He has been hanging
round my place for a month, and lives at a cottage near Polegate. Why
should he have come to Eastbourne?"

"On a holiday trip?" suggested the commissioner.

"Bah!" said John Minute contemptuously. "There's some other reason.
I've had him watched. He goes every day to visit a woman at a hotel--a
confederate. They're never seen in public together. Then there's a
peddler, one of those fellows who sell glass and repair windows; nobody
knows anything about him. He doesn't do enough business to keep a fly
alive. He's always hanging round Weald Lodge. Then there's a Miss
Paines, who says she's a landscape gardener, and wants to lay out the
grounds in some newfangled way. I sent her packing about her business,
but she hasn't left the neighborhood."

"Have you reported the matter to the local police?" asked the
commissioner.

Minute nodded.

"And they know nothing suspicious about them?"

"Nothing!" said Mr. Minute briefly.

"Then," said the other, smiling, "there is probably nothing known
against them, and they are quite innocent people trying to get a
living. After all, Mr. Minute, a man who is as rich as you are must
expect to attract a number of people, each trying to secure some of your
wealth in a more or less legitimate way. I suspect nothing more
remarkable than this has happened."

He leaned back in his chair, his hands clasped, a sudden frown on his
face.

"I hate to suggest that anybody know