nd. Think, too, over what I
have said about our climate. At your time of life, Mr. Inspector Jacks,
and particularly at this season of the year, one should be careful. A
sea voyage now would, I am convinced, be the very thing for you. Good
day, Mr. Jacks!"

The Prince turned towards Buckingham Palace, and the Inspector slowly
retraced his steps.

"It is a bribe!" he muttered to himself slowly,--"a cleverly offered
bribe! Thirty thousand pounds to forget the little I have learned!
Thirty thousand pounds for silence!"

CHAPTER XXV. HOBSON'S CHOICE

There were some days when the absence of patients seemed to Dr. Spencer
Whiles a thing almost insupportable. Too late he began to realize that
he had set up in the wrong neighborhood. In years to come, he reflected
gloomily, when the great building estate which was to have been
developed more than a year ago was really opened up, there might be an
opportunity where he was, a very excellent opportunity, too, for a young
doctor of ability. Just now, however, the outlook was almost hopeless.
He found himself even looking eagerly forward every day for another
visit from Mr. Inspector Jacks. Another trip to town would mean a peep
into the world of luxury, whose doors were so closely barred against
him, and, what was more important still, it would mean a fee which would
keep the wolf from the door for another week. It had come to that with
Dr. Whiles. His little stock of savings was exhausted. Unless something
turned up within the course of the next few weeks, he knew very well
that there was nothing left for him to do but to slip away quietly
into the embrace of the more shady parts of the great city, to find
a situation somewhere, somehow, beyond the ken of the disappointed
creditors whom he would leave behind.

Mr. Inspector Jacks, however, had apparently no further use, for the
present at any rate, for his medical friend. On the other hand, Dr.
Spencer Whiles was not left wholly to himself. On the fourth day after
his visit to London a motor car drew up outside his modest surgery door,
and with an excitement which he found it almost impossible to conceal,
he saw a plainly dressed young man, evidently a foreigner and, he
believed, a Japanese, descend and ring the patients' bell. The doctor
had dismissed his boy a week ago, from sheer inability to pay his modest
wages, and he did not hesitate for a moment about opening the door
himself. The man outside raised his hat and