"I shall explain. On the night of the twenty-first I intended to go out in the streets in disguise. Before doing so, I told the office boy that if a telegram came for me he was to bring it at once to me; I expected a wire about six o'clock; and I told the boy that I would be in the Strand near St. Clements Church."
"From whom did you expect the telegram?"
"From Anne Colmer. That day I had received a letter from her, saying that she was greatly worried about something; what it was she did not tell me; but she said that if she wanted me she would wire, and that I was then to come down at once to Taxton-on-Thames."
"Go on," said Fanks, greatly interested in the introduction of Anne's name.
"Well, I blacked my face, and went out with the genuine niggers to sing and play. About six, or a little after, I was near St. Clement's Church, and there the office boy came to me with a telegram."
"Why did you expect the telegram at six?"
"Because I was in the office about five, and it had not come then. I thought it might come after I left, so I appointed St. Clement's Church as the meeting-place where the boy might find me."
"And you obeyed?"
"What was in the telegram?"
"A request that I should come down to Taxton-on-Thames at once."