as
he spoke he had stroked the top of his head, which rose above his
strongly-marked brows like a down-covered cone.

He maintained that a disguise can always be identified, although not
necessarily penetrated. This in itself would be sufficient to defeat
the end of the disguised man by rendering him an object of suspicion.
Few men can disguise their walk or bearing, no matter how clever
they might be with false beards, grease-paint and wigs.

In this Malcolm Sage was a bitter disappointment to William Johnson,
the office junior. His conception of the sleuth-hound had been
tinctured by the vivid fiction with which he beguiled his spare time.

In the heart of William Johnson there were three great emotions: his
hero-worship of Malcolm Sage, his romantic devotion to Gladys Norman,
and his wholesome fear of the robustious humour of Tims.

In his more imaginative moments he would create a world in which he
was the recognised colleague of Malcolm Sage, the avowed admirer of
Miss Norman, and the austere employer of Tims--chauffeurs never took
liberties with the hair of their employers, no matter how knut-like
it might be worn.

It was with the object of making sure of the first turret of his
castle in Spain, that William Johnson devoted himself to the earnest
study of what he conceived to be his future profession.

He read voraciously all the detective stories and police-reports he
came across. Every moment he could snatch from his official duties
he devoted to some scrap of paper, booklet, or magazine. He strove
to cultivate his reasoning powers. Never did a prospective client
enter the Malcolm Sage Bureau without automatically setting into
operation William Johnson's mental induction-coil. With eyes that
were covertly keen, he would examine the visitor as he sat waiting
for the two sharp buzzes on the private telephone which indicated
that Malcolm Sage was at liberty.

It mattered little to William Johnson that error seemed to dog his
footsteps; that he had "deduced" a famous pussyfoot admiral as a
comedian addicted to drink; a lord, with a ten century lineage, as a
man selling something or other; a Cabinet Minister as a company
promoter in the worst sense of the term; nothing could damp his zeal.

Malcolm Sage's "cases" he studied as intimately as he could from his
position as junior; but they disappointed him. They seemed lacking
in that element of drama he found so enthralling in the literature
he read and the