"To-night?"
"At once, sir, if you please. They've sent a trap for us from Lakenhall. That's waiting at the gate."
The mason's axe was still in his hand, the unfinished stone at his feet. Carlton looked wistfully from one to the other, and thence in appeal to the officer of the law.
"I say, Frost, is there any hurry for a quarter of an hour? I'd—I'd give a sovereign to finish this stone!"
Virtue blazed in the constable's face.
"You don't bribe me, sir!" he cried. "I'm ashamed of you, I am, for tryin' that on! No, Mr. Carlton, you've got to come straight away."
"But surely I may change first?"
"You'll have to be quick, and I'll have to come with you."
"Is that necessary?" asked Carlton with some heat, as he flung his tools under cover.
"That's left to me, sir, and I don't trust no gentleman in his dressing-room. My orders are to take you alive, Mr. Carlton."