been deceived by the extraordinary likeness. I don't think,
on reflection, that that _is_ Bingo!"

"What do you think, Travers?" asked the colonel.

"Well, since you ask me," said Travers, with quite unnecessary dryness,
"I never did think so."

"Nor I," said the colonel; "I thought from the first that was never my
Bingo. Why, Bingo would make two of that beast!"

And Lilian and her aunt both protested that they had had their doubts
from the first.

"Zen you pairmeet zat I remove 'im?" said the Frenchman.

"Certainly," said the colonel; and, after some apologies on our part for
the mistake, he went off in triumph, with the detestable poodle frisking
after him.

When he had gone the colonel laid his hand kindly on my shoulder. "Don't
look so cut up about it, my boy," he said; "you did your best--there was
a sort of likeness to any one who didn't know Bingo as we did."

Just then the Frenchman again appeared at the hedge. "A thousand
pardons," he said, "but I find zis upon my dog; it is not to me. Suffer
me to restore it viz many compliments."

It was Bingo's collar. Travers took it from his hand and brought it to
us.

"This was on the dog when you stopped that fellow, didn't you say?" he
asked me.

One more lie--and I was so weary of falsehood! "Y-yes," I said,
reluctantly; "that was so."

"Very extraordinary," said Travers; "that's the wrong poodle beyond a
doubt, but when he's found he's wearing the right dog's collar! Now how
do you account for that?"

"My good fellow," I said, impatiently, "I'm not in the witness-box. I
_can't_ account for it. It-it's a mere coincidence!"

"But look here, my _dear_ Weatherhead," argued Travers (whether in
good faith or not I never could quite make out), "don't you see what a
tremendously important link it is? Here's a dog who (as I understand the
facts) had a silver collar, with his name engraved on it, round his neck
at the time he was lost. Here's that identical collar turning up soon
afterward round the neck of a totally different dog! We must follow
this up; we must get at the bottom of it somehow! With a clue like this,
we're sure to find out either the dog himself, or what's become of him!
Just try to recollect exactly what happened, there's a good fellow. This
is just the sort of thing I like!"

It was the sort of thing I did not enjoy at all. "You must excuse me
to-night, Travers," I said, uncomfortably; "you see, just now it's
rather a sore subject for me