"

"Who is he?"

"That Inspector who came up at the critical moment. He was one of my
first friends in London."

"I remember. Go on."

"I was thankful to see him, I can tell you. Well, he undertook to square
that poor bewildered bobby, and to take steps to get the road cleared
and the hole filled up."

"How?"

"There is a street being mended just round the corner, and he said he
would get the foreman of the gang, who is a relation of his wife's, to
send a couple of men to put things right immediately. It's probably done
by now."

"Then I suppose we may regard the incident as closed."

"Yes, I suppose so."

There was a silence.

"It was a bit of a failure at the finish," said Dicky meditatively, "but
it was a success on the whole--what?"

"Rather!" said his fellow-conspirators.

"Our chief difficulty," continued Dicky, "was to decide on the exact
type of drama to present. I was all for our dressing up as foreigners,
and relaying an asphalte street. It would have been top-hole to trot
about in list slippers and pat the hot asphalte down with those things
they use. And think of the make-up!--curly moustaches and earrings! And
we could have jabbered spoof Italian. But then old Robin here, who I
must say has a headpiece on him, pointed out that the scenery and props
would be much too expensive. We should want a cart with a bonfire in it
and a sort of witches' cauldron on top, and all kinds of sticky stuff;
so we gave up that scheme. We did not feel inclined to mess with
gas-pipes or electric wires either, in case we burst ourselves up; so we
finally decided to select some street with a wooden pavement, and maul
it about generally for as long as we could. If we got interfered with by
anybody official, we meant to talk some rot about the Borough Surveyor,
and skedaddle if necessary. But it all worked beautifully!"

"Where did you get your tools and tent?"

"Robin managed that," said Dicky admiringly.

Robin looked extremely dour, and I refrained from further inquiry.

"Robin's got some rum pals, I _don't_ think!" observed Gerald
pertinently.

"Didn't I make these chaps up well?" continued Dicky enthusiastically.
"We roared when you passed us at breakfast-time without spotting us."

"Very creditable impersonation," I replied, getting up and knocking my
pipe out. "I only hope I shan't have to resign my seat over it. If I may
venture to offer a criticism, the weak spot in the enterprise was the
idea of in