"Yes; but not with you gentlemen. We will part company at the depot and I will take another car."
"How are you getting on, Mr. Merrick?" inquired Mr. Thorton.
"As well as can be expected, all things considered," was the non-committal reply.
"Going to be a slow case, I'm afraid," commented Ralph Mainwaring, shaking his head in a doubtful way, while Mr. Thornton added jokingly,—
"We've got some mighty fine fellows over home there at the Yard; if you should want any help, Mr. Merrick, I'll cable for one of them."
"Thank you, sir," said the detective, with quiet dignity; "I don't anticipate that I shall want any assistance; and if I should, I will hardly need import it from Scotland Yard."
"Ha, ha! That all depends, you know, on what your man is. If the rascal happens to have any English blood in him, it will take a Scotland Yard chap to run him down."
"On the principle, I suppose, of 'set a rogue to catch a rogue,'" Merrick replied, smiling.
He bad scarcely finished speaking when Hardy suddenly entered the room.
"Beg pardon, sir," he said, addressing Ralph Mainwaring; "but the coachman is gone! We've looked everywhere for him, but he's nowhere about the place."