opera cloaks,
watches and sicklike in 'ere, to set up a blarsted pawnbroker's!"

"That's all right, my lad!" said Dunbar, holding up his hand to silence
the voluble speaker. "There's going to be no license-losing. You did not
hear that you were wanted before?"

The watery eyes of the cabman protruded painfully; he respired like a
horse.

"ME, guv'nor!" he exclaimed. "Gor'blime! I ain't the bloke! I was
drivin' back from takin' the Honorable 'Erbert 'Arding 'ome--same as I
does almost every night, when the 'ouse is a-sittin'--when I see old Tom
Brian drawin' away from the door o' Palace Man--"

Again Dunbar held up his hand.

"No doubt you mean well," he said; "but damme! begin at the beginning!
Who are you, and what have you come to tell us?"

"'Oo are I?--'Ere's 'oo I ham!" wheezed the cabman, proffering a greasy
license. "Richard 'Amper, number 3 Breams Mews, Dulwich Village"...

"That's all right," said Dunbar, thrusting back the proffered document;
"and last night you had taken Mr. Harding the member of Parliament, to
his residence in?"--

"In Peers' Chambers, Westminister--that's it, guv'nor! Comin' back, I
'ave to pass along the north side o' the Square, an' just a'ead o' me,
I see old Tom Brian a-pullin' round the Johnny 'Orner,--'im comin' from
Palace Mansions."

"Mr. Exel only mentioned seeing ONE cab," muttered Dunbar, glancing
keenly aside at Sowerby.

"Wotcher say, guv'nor?" asked the cabman.

"I say--did you see a gentleman approaching from the corner?" asked
Dunbar.

"Yus," declared the man; "I see 'im, but 'e 'adn't got as far as the
Johnny 'Orner. As I passed outside old Tom Brian, wot's changin' 'is
gear, I see a bloke blowin' along on the pavement--a bloke in a high
'at, an' wearin' a heye-glass."

"At this time, then," pursued Dunbar, "you had actually passed the other
cab, and the gentleman on the pavement had not come up with it?"

"'E couldn't see it, guv'nor! I'm tellin' you 'e 'adn't got to the
Johnny 'Orner!"

"I see," muttered Sowerby. "It's possible that Mr. Exel took no notice
of the first cab--especially as it did not come out of the Square."

"Wotcher say, guv'nor?" queried the cabman again, turning his bleared
eyes upon Sergeant Sowerby.

"He said," interrupted Dunbar, "was Brian's cab empty?"

"'Course it was," rapped Mr. Hamper, "'e 'd just dropped 'is fare at
Palace Mansions."...

"How do you know?" snapped Dunbar, suddenly, fixing his fierce eyes upon
the face