"Oh, they're all right," I consoled myself with thinking. "I expect Gammage is so interested in the wonderful carpet that they can't get away."
When three hours had passed, however, and there was no sign of their return, I began to get seriously alarmed.
"What can have happened?" I thought, and, to add to my discomfiture, a telegram arrived from Lionel's parents inquiring if he had arrived in London safely from Marlborough.
I was able to reply, truthfully, that he had arrived safely, but, as hour after hour passed by without any trace of either Shin Shira or the boy, I became more and more disturbed.
At last I could stand it no longer, but putting on my hat, I hurried off to the nearest Police Station.
"H'm! What do you say, sir?" said the Police Inspector whom I found there, seated before a large open book, when in a broken voice I had hurriedly explained that I feared that my young cousin was lost. "Went off in company with a foreign-looking gent—Just describe him to me, please, as near as you can."
I described Shin Shira's appearance as accurately as I could, and the Police Inspector looked up hurriedly and gave me a searching glance.
"Do you mean to say the gent was going about the streets dressed like that?" he asked, when I had told him about Shin Shira's yellow costume and turban.
"Yes," I replied in some confusion, "he is a foreigner, you know, and—"
"Where does he come from?"