“I agree with you,” said Westerham, “a most peculiar case, a most puzzling case. But, at the same time, I cannot see, in the least, how it concerns you.”

“I am sure, sir,” said Mr. Rookley, with meaning, “that the sooner I remove your valet the better.”

“Just as you please. As I find you in my flat, and as apparently you want to talk, and as, moreover, I have nothing on earth to do, I suppose I had better talk with you. May I offer you a whisky-and-soda?”

“Not now, sir,” said Mr. Rookley severely, and he beckoned to his colleague to take the astonished valet away.

When they were alone, Mr. Rookley turned sharply on Westerham and demanded in a dictatorial voice: “What does it all mean?”

“Now really,” Westerham laughed,[Pg 102] “I should have supposed that that was the question I should have asked you. You, Mr. Rookley, of Scotland Yard, as detective, should be more versed in the wicked ways of this life than I am.

[Pg 102]

“I have my rooms entered by a stranger, who gags my valet, and who subsequently turns all my effects topsy-turvy. You are summoned by the police to catch the offender. When are you going to catch him?”

Mr. Rookley was used to what he himself called “cool hands,” but, as he said afterwards, this was the coolest hand he had ever met.

However, he was equal to the occasion.

“How do you suppose, sir,” he asked, “we are to make an arrest if you don't provide us with some data to go on?”

“Data!” exclaimed Westerham. “Surely there is plenty of data here, and I can tell you nothing more.”

“Now come, sir,” urged the detective, “you must admit that you yourself are rather a peculiar person, and, mind you, sir, we of the Yard are no respecters of persons. You came here a week ago. You apparently dropped from the skies. No one knows who you are, and yet you have plenty of money. You buy a big motor car, you order a lot of new clothes, and then you disappear.”

Westerham nodded. “Quite true,” he said. “Go on.”

“And then,” continued the detective, “you reappear. You order out the car, and scarcely is your back turned before this business happens.

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