more lamentable still, a nice-looking woman! I have long resisted a
growing conviction that, wherever there is mischief in this world, an
individual of the fair sex is inevitably certain to be mixed up in it.
After the experience of this morning, I can struggle against that sad
conclusion no longer. I give up the sex--excepting Mrs. Yatman, I give
up the sex.

The man named "Jack" offered the woman his arm. Mr. Jay placed himself
on the other side of her. The three then walked away slowly among the
trees. I followed them at a respectful distance. My two subordinates, at
a respectful distance also, followed me.

It was, I deeply regret to say, impossible to get near enough to them to
overhear their conversation without running too great a risk of being
discovered. I could only infer from their gestures and actions that they
were all three talking with extraordinary earnestness on some subject
which deeply interested them. After having been engaged in this way a
full quarter of an hour, they suddenly turned round to retrace their
steps. My presence of mind did not forsake me in this emergency. I
signed to the two subordinates to walk on carelessly and pass them,
while I myself slipped dexterously behind a tree. As they came by me, I
heard "Jack" address these words to Mr. Jay:

"Let us say half past ten to-morrow morning. And mind you come in a cab.
We had better not risk taking one in this neighbourhood."

Mr. Jay made some brief reply which I could not overhear. They walked
back to the place at which they had met, shaking hands there with an
audacious cordiality which it quite sickened me to see. They then
separated. I followed Mr. Jay. My subordinates paid the same delicate
attention to the other two.

Instead of taking me back to Rutherford Street, Mr. Jay led me to the
Strand. He stopped at a dingy, disreputable-looking house, which,
according to the inscription over the door, was a newspaper office, but
which, in my judgment, had all the external appearance of a place
devoted to the reception of stolen goods.

After remaining inside for a few minutes, he came out whistling, with
his finger and thumb in his waistcoat pocket. Some men would now have
arrested him on the spot. I remembered the necessity of catching the two
confederates, and the importance of not interfering with the appointment
that had been made for the next morning. Such coolness as this, under
trying circumstances, is rarely to be found, I sho