generalising.” 

 “You want a concrete instance?” he answered, beaming on me. “What do you say then to a swimmer being awarded the Humane Society’s certificate for attempting to save the life of a man whom he had really drowned? It needs only a little imagination to fill in the details.” 

 “That is good,” I admitted. “We put one to your credit.” 

 “Again,” said the Baron, “I offer the case of a senseless young spendthrift. He gambles, he drinks, his life is a bad life from the insurance company’s point of view. When hard pressed, he is lavish with his I.O.U.’s; when flush of money he redeems them; he pays up, he throws the slips into the fire with hardly a glance at them. One who holds a good deal of his paper observes this, and acts accordingly. He preserves the original securities, and on redemption, offers forgeries in their place, which he is careful to see destroyed. On the death of the young man he puts in his claim on his estate on the strength of the indisputable original documents. Thus he is paid twice over, without a possibility of any suspicion arising.” 

 “But one of the forged I.O.U.’s,” said Audrey, “had been carried up the chimney without catching a light, and had been blown through the open window of the young man’s family lawyer, who had kept it as a surprise.” 

 There was a shout of laughter, in which the Baron joined. 

 “Bravo, Audrey!” cried her brother. “What about your average inventive intelligence, Baron?” 

 “I said, specifically, a man’s,” pleaded Le Sage. “Women, fortunately for us, are not eligible for the detective force.” 

 Audrey laughed at the compliment, but I think she liked the Baron for his pleasant good-nature. About that, for my part, I kept an open mind. Had he really invented these cases on the spur of the moment, or could it be possible that they touched on some experience of his own? One could not say, of course; but one could bear the point in mind. 

 The dinner went cheerfully enough after this jeu d’esprit of Audrey’s. That had even roused Hugh from his glooms, and to quite exaggerated effect. He became suddenly talkative where he had been taciturn, and almost boisterously communicative where he had been reserved. But I noticed that he drank a good deal, and detected curiously, as I thought, a hint of desperation under his feverish gaiety. 

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