“Yes, and two what?”
“Well, you see, the doorbell rang”–––
“Yes, you said that!” snapped Captain Stone. “The doorbell rang and two”–––
“Yes, and two minutes after that it rang again––rang in an extraordinary kind of way, you know, as if whoever was ringing it––was ringing it because––because they wanted to come in––come in in a hurry, you see. Well, I went to the door”–––
“Why did you go to the door?” demanded Captain Stone.
“Well, you see, the bell rang”–––
“Don’t go back to that again! Why did you go to the door?”
“Well, I can’t at this minute remember exactly, but I’m under the impression I went to––to find out who was ringing the bell, just like that, as it were.”
“That’s enough of you,” snorted Captain Stone. 241 “Ryan (to one of his men) take this one and slip the nippers on him.”
“See here, Captain, I can explain this.”––Travers Gladwin essayed again, as he saw his friend struggling in the grip of a blue-coated giant and spluttering his protests against being handcuffed.