all on Jap and endeavour to see his wife. You
may be sadder but wiser. Meet me Victoria Street, 5 p.m. to-day."

He called a waiter and gave instructions that this message should be sent
off early next morning. Then he lit a cigar to soothe his disappointment.

"I cannot emulate the House of Commons bird," he mused, "or at this moment
I would be close to Jiro's flat in Kensington, and at the same time
crossing Lombardy in an express. What an ass Winter is, to be sure,
whenever a subtle stroke requires an ingenious guard. Jiro dresses his
wife in male attire and sends her on an errand he dare not perform
himself. The fact that they depart together from their residence is
diplomatic in itself. If they are followed, the watcher is sure to shadow
Jiro and leave his unknown friend. Just imagine Winter dodging Jiro around
the Rosetta Stone or the Phoebus Apollo, whilst the woman is visiting some
one or some place of infinite value to our search. It is positively
maddening."

Perhaps, in his heart, Brett felt that Winter was not so greatly to blame.
The sudden appearance on the scene of a portly and respectable stranger
was disconcerting, but could hardly serve as an excuse for leaving Jiro's
trail at the point of bifurcation.

Moreover, it is difficult to suspect stout people of criminal tendencies.
Winter had the best of negative evidence that they are not adapted for
"treasons, spoils, and stratagems." Even a convicted rogue, if corpulent,
demands sympathy.

But Brett was very sore. He stamped about the room and kicked unoffending
chairs out of the way. His unfailing instinct told him that a rare
opportunity had been lost. It was well for Winter that he was beyond reach
of the barrister's tongue. A valid defence would have availed him naught.

David entered.

"I just seized an opportunity--" he commenced eagerly, but Brett levelled
his cigar at him as if it were a revolver.

"You want to tell me," he cried, "that before you were two hours in
Portsmouth you ascertained Frazer's address from an old friend. You caught
the next train for London, went to his lodgings, encountered a nagging
landlady, and found that your cousin had taken his overcoat to the
pawnbroker's to raise money for his fair to Stowmarket You drove
frantically to Liverpool Street, interviewed a smart platform inspector,
and he told you--"

"That all I had to do was to ask Brett, and he would not only give me a
detailed history of my own actions