tell you it will be better for you to be quite frank and outspoken with us. When did Dawnay leave this train-- tell me?" 

"I don't know," I replied, which was really the truth. And the chagrin of the two police-officers was now fully apparent. 

"But you've rendered yourself liable to prosecution, don't forget that," said the man with the straw hat. "That man, Alfred Dawnay, _alias_ Day, is wanted on a very serious charge.""Of what?" I asked quickly. "Never mind what.  You've assisted him to escape, and you'll have to answer for it." And he closed the door angrily, for the train was again about to move off towards London. What, I wondered, was the serious charge against Alfred Dawnay? CHAPTER SIX. THE QUICK AND THE DEAD. On my return to London I had the very unpleasant experience of being closely watched by detectives, just as the fugitive had foreseen. It was quite evident that the police intended to rediscover Dawnay through my instrumentality. I wrote to "Mr Hamilton Davis," at the Poste Restante, Charing Cross, giving him my London address at the Hotel Cecil, and also my address at Upton End, hoping that he would send me an appointment. Yet he had shown himself so wary that I hardly believed he would at once reveal his hiding-place. I was extremely anxious to meet him again, for I hoped to learn more from him and solve the mystery of the man whom I had known as Melvill Arnold. In order to evade the unwelcome attentions of detectives, I went down to Upton End for a few days, for I knew that if any stranger were lurking in the vicinity old Tucker would certainly know of it. Not three days had I been there, indeed, before one morning he lingered over watering the plants in the conservatory when I came down to breakfast, to declare that he was much puzzled over the fact that a man--"a decent-looking man" he described him--seemed to be forever passing and repassing the lodge. "I can't think, sir, what can be his business," he said. "I don't like the looks of him at all. Maybe he's one of a gang who intends to rob the house, sir. Therefore I've told Thomas and Mason to keep their eyes open." He referred to the groom and the under-gardener. "I've half a mind to set the dogs on 'im," he added. "Only let 'im come into the drive and I'd let Prince after 'im. His whole suit of clothes wouldn't be worth sixpence afterwards." "Some inquisitive fellow, I suppose, Tucker," I said, in an endeavor to treat the incident with utter unconcern. "I don't fancy burglars would come here." "Don't you believe it, sir. There's lots of things--pictures and curios which your father, the late Sir Lionel, collected--which would fetch a big price in London, you know, sir." "Well," I 

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