‘Dhrunk and dishortherly.’
‘And he had the cheek to send you here and to say that I’m his first cousin?’
‘Yes, sorr.’
‘Well,’ said Paul, with a brief laugh, ‘I don’t know that I’ve anything better to do. Wait downstairs whilst I dress, and have a cab ready if you can find one. Give the officer a drink, waiter.’
In a weary fashion he was tickled by this incident; and when he had made a hasty toilette he descended, and was driven to Bow Street, where, after a spell of waiting, he was introduced to his ‘first cousin’ in a corridor.
‘What’s all this, Wilder?’ he asked.
‘It’s this, me man,’ said Wilder. ‘I took a fancy to declaim a favourite little bit of Euripides in Endell Street, and a uniformed ass came along and ran me in. And being penniless as I am——’
‘Penniless!’ said Paul ‘You had five shillings to my certain knowledge.’
‘Oh, I had,’ said Wilder, ‘but I met some poor devil that was harder up than I am—at least, he said so—and I bestowed it on him with my blessing.’
‘We know your name, Mr. Armstrong,’ said the officer who had the man of genius in his charge, ‘and if you’ll be surety that the gentleman will be here at ten o’clock this morning, he can go.’