hich has its
headquarters north of the Tweed.

The crowd politely receded about six inches, and through them,
accompanied by Robin, the Inspector clove his way to the encampment,
where Dicky, who seemed to be rapidly losing his head, was delivering a
sort of recitative to every one in general, accompanied by the policeman
on the whistle.

What the Inspector said to his subordinate I do not know, but the net
result was that in a very short time the former was escorting the entire
party of excavators down the street, attended by a retinue of small boys
(who were evidently determined to see if it was going to turn out a
hanging matter); while the latter, to whom the clearing of the "house"
had evidently been deputed, set about that task with a vigour and
ferocity which plainly indicated a well-meaning and zealous mind
tingling under an entirely undeserved official snub.

* * * * *

They told me all about it in the smoking-room that night.

"The idea," began Dicky, "was----"

"Whose idea was it?" I inquired sternly "It was all of our idea,"
replied my future relative by marriage lucidly.

"But who worked it out?" I asked,--"the plot, the business, the 'props'?
It was a most elaborate production."

"Never you mind that, old man," said Dicky lightly. (But I saw that
Robin was laboriously relighting his pipe and surrounding himself with
an impenetrable cloud of smoke.) "Listen to the yarn. The idea was to
stake out a claim in some fairly busy road and stay there for a given
time--say, six o'clock till tea-time--and kid the passing citizens that
we were duly authorised to get in the way and mess up the traffic
generally. If we succeeded we were going to write to _The Times_ or some
such paper and tell what we had done--anonymously, of course--just to
show how necessary Champion's Bill is."

"Have you written the letter?"

"Yes."

"I wouldn't send it if I were you."

"Well, that's what Robin here has been saying."

"Putrid rot if we don't!" remarked Gerald, who had by this time washed
his face, but ought to have been in bed for all that.

"We can't do it," said Robin. "For one thing, we have attracted quite
enough public attention already,--it's bound to be in the papers anyhow,
now, and that will probably give the Bill all the advertisement it
needs,--and if we give the authorities any more clues our names may come
out. For another thing, it wouldn't be fair to Hector MacPherson.