.
Do you see?"

"I do, and I admire your diplomacy. Now what is your plan?"

"May I first tell mine?" I said.

"Do," said the Inspector, "for mine is not quite matured yet."

"Well," I said, "my idea is this. I propose that Mr. Wetherell shall
obtain from his bank a number of gold bags, fill them with lead discs to
represent coin, and let it leak out before this man that he has got the
money in the house. Then to-night Mr. Wetherell will set off for the
water-side. I will row him down the harbour disguised as a boatman. We
will pick up the boat, as arranged in that letter. In the meantime you
must start from the other side in a police boat, pull up to meet us, and
arrest the man. Then we will force him to disclose Miss Wetherell's
whereabouts, and act upon his information. What do you say?"

"It certainly sound feasible," said the Inspector, and Mr. Wetherell
nodded his head approvingly. At that moment the Marquis entered the
room, looking much better than when we had found him on the preceding
night, and the conversation branched off into a different channel.

My plot seemed to commend itself so much to Mr. Wetherell's judgment,
that he ordered his carriage and drove off there and then to his bank,
while I went down to the harbour, arranged about a boat, and having done
so, proceeded up to the town, where I purchased a false beard, an old
dungaree suit, such as a man loafing about the harbour might wear, and a
slouch hat of villainous appearance. By the time I got back to the house
Mr. Wetherell had returned. With great delight he conducted me to his
study, and, opening his safe, showed me a number of canvas bags, on each
of which was printed L1,000.

"But surely there are not L100,000 there?"

"No," said the old gentleman with a chuckle. "There is the counterfeit
of L50,000 there; for the rest I propose to show him these."

So saying, he dived his hand into a drawer and produced a sheaf of crisp
bank-notes.

"There--these are notes for the balance of the amount."

"But you surely are not going to pay? I thought we were going to try to
catch the rascals without letting any money change hands."

"So we are, do not be afraid. If you will only glance at these notes you
will see that they are dummies, every one of them. They are for me to
exhibit to the man in the boat; in the dark they'll pass muster, never
fear."

"Very good indeed," I said with a laugh. "By the time they can be
properly examined we shall