chiefs went about for months trying to get rid of him. He
offered to give a motor-cycle to anyone who would take him, it was a
Government cycle," she added; "but there was nothing doing. We
called him Henry the Second and Mr. Sage Becket, the archbishop not
the boxer," 'she explained. "You know," she added, "there was once
an English king who wanted to get rid of----"

"We'll have it the sort of concern that insurance companies can look
to," Sir John Dene broke in.

"What on earth are you talking about, John?" cried Dorothy.

Whilst his wife talked Sir John Dene had been busy planning Malcolm
Sage's future, and he had uttered his thoughts aloud. He proceeded
to explain. When he had finished, Dorothy clapped her hands.

"Hurrah! for Malcolm Sage, Detective," she cried and, jumping up,
she perched herself upon the arm of her husband's chair, and rumpled
the fair hair, which with her was always a sign of approval. "That's
his ring, or Sir James's," she added as the bell sounded.

"Now we'll leave you lords of creation to carry out my idea," she
said as she followed Mrs. West to the door.

And Sir John Dene smiled.

II

"In the States they've got Pinkerton's," said Sir John Dene,
twirling with astonishing rapidity an unlit cigar between his lips.
"If you've lost anything, from a stick-pin to a mountain, you just
blow in there, tell them all about it, and go away and don't worry.
Here you've got nothing."

"We have Scotland Yard," remarked Malcolm Sage quietly, without
looking up from the contemplation of his hands, which, with fingers
wide apart, rested upon the table before him.

His bald, conical head seemed to contradict the determined set of
his jaw and the steel-coloured eyes that gazed keenly through large
gold-rimmed spectacles. Even his ears, that stood squarely out from
his head, appeared to emphasise by their aggressiveness that they
had nothing to do with the benevolent shape of the head above.

"Yes, and you've got Cleopatra's Needle, and the pelicans in St.
James's Park," Sir John Dene retorted scornfully. He had never
forgotten the occasion when, at a critical moment in the country's
history, the First Lord of the Admiralty had casually enquired if he
had seen the pelicans.

For the last half-hour Sir John Dene, with characteristic
impulsiveness, had been engaged in brushing aside all Malcolm Sage's
"cons" with his almighty "Pro."

"We'll have a Pinkerton's in England," he resumed, as