And now came the hitch of our adventure; for when the policeman, still
closely following us, beheld my two boxes lying in the rain, he arose
from mere suspicion to a kind of certitude of something evil. The light
in the house had been extinguished; the whole frontage of the street was
dark; there was nothing to explain the presence of these unguarded
trunks; and no two innocent people were ever, I believe, detected in
such questionable circumstances.

"Where have these things come from?" asked the policeman, flashing his
light full into my champion's face.

"Why, from that house of course," replied the young gentleman, hastily
shouldering a trunk.

The policeman whistled and turned to look at the dark windows; he then
took a step towards the door, as though to knock, a course which had
infallibly proved our ruin; but seeing us already hurrying down the
street under our double burthen, thought better or worse of it, and
followed in our wake.

"For God's sake," whispered my companion, "tell me where to drive to."

"Anywhere," I replied, with anguish. "I have no idea. Anywhere you
like."

Thus it fell that, when the boxes had been stowed and I had already
entered the cab, my deliverer called out in clear tones the address of
the house in which we are now seated. The policeman, I could see, was
staggered. This neighbourhood, so retired, so aristocratic, was far from
what he had expected. For all that, he took the number of the cab, and
spoke for a few seconds and with a decided manner, in the cabman's ear.

"What can he have said?" I gasped, as soon as the cab had rolled away.

"I can very well imagine," replied my champion; "and I can assure you
that you are now condemned to go where I have said; for, should we
attempt to change our destination by the way, the jarvey will drive us
straight to a police-office. Let me compliment you on your nerves," he
added. "I have had, I believe, the most horrible fright of my
existence."

But my nerves, which he so much misjudged, were in so strange a disarray
that speech was now become impossible; and we made the drive
thenceforward in unbroken silence. When we arrived before the door of
our destination, the young gentleman alighted, opened it with a pass-key
like one who was at home, bade the driver carry the trunks into the
hall, and dismissed him with a handsome fee. He then led me into this
dining-room, looking nearly as you behold it, but with certain marks of
bachelo