"You needn't introduce yourself, Ernie," he growled. "You've taken no harm, I see."
Later the two men retired to the consulting-room to talk business.
"Would you care for a temporary job at the Hohenzollern?" asked Mr. Trupp; "the German Hotel on the Crumbles. It was building in your time. They want a lift-man, I know."
"Anything, sir," answered Ernie with easy enthusiasm.
Mr. Trupp rang up the Hotel and arranged the matter there and then.
"It will do as a stop-gap, anyway," he said, "until we can fix you up in a permanent job. You don't want to be knocking about at home, twiddling your thumbs."
"That I don't, sir!" laughed Ernie a thought ironically, and returned to Deep-dene to tell his luck.
Mr. Pigott glanced at his wife.
"The Hohenzollern," he said gruffly. "Well, give it a try."
Next day Mr. Pigott met the Doctor in the street.