nce
matters--about twelve o'clock; for after that hour, the servants told
Lina, there was quiet in the drawing-room. Next, I conjecture, he went
upstairs to change his clothes: he could not go forth on the world in
an evening suit; and the housemaid says his black coat and trousers were
lying as usual on a chair in his dressing-room--which shows at least
that he was not unduly flurried. After that, he put on another suit,
no doubt--WHAT suit I hope the police will not discover too soon; for
I suppose you must just accept the situation that we are conspiring to
defeat the ends of justice."

"No, no!" Mrs. Mallet cried. "To bring him back voluntarily, that he may
face his trial like a man!"

"Yes, dear. That is quite right. However, the next thing, of course,
would be that he would shave in whole or in part. His big black beard
was so very conspicuous; he would certainly get rid of that before
attempting to escape. The servants being in bed, he was not pressed for
time; he had the whole night before him. So, of course, he shaved.
On the other hand, the police, you may be sure, will circulate his
photograph--we must not shirk these points"--for Mrs. Mallet winced
again--"will circulate his photograph, BEARD AND ALL; and that will
really be one of our great safeguards; for the bushy beard so masks the
face that, without it, Hugo would be scarcely recognisable. I conclude,
therefore, that he must have shorn himself BEFORE leaving home; though
naturally I did not make the police a present of the hint by getting
Lina to ask any questions in that direction of the housemaid."

"You are probably right," I answered. "But would he have a razor?"

"I was coming to that. No; certainly he would not. He had not shaved for
years. And they kept no men-servants; which makes it difficult for him
to borrow one from a sleeping man. So what he would do would doubtless
be to cut off his beard, or part of it, quite close, with a pair of
scissors, and then get himself properly shaved next morning in the first
country town he came to."

"The first country town?"

"Certainly. That leads up to the next point. We must try to be cool and
collected." She was quivering with suppressed emotion herself, as she
said it, but her soothing hand still lay on Mrs. Mallet's. "The next
thing is--he would leave London."

"But not by rail, you say?"

"He is an intelligent man, and in the course of defending others has
thought about this matter. Why expos