"Tut, tut, Blyth! Do keep cool. Think how humanity will benefit from your present inconvenience. I'll look out for your article in the British Medical Journal, and I won't contradict it, though my pulse never went above seventy-three nor my temperature over ninety-nine, and wouldn't have done that if I'd bottled the radium at once instead of stopping to chatter with you. But you really ought to have kept a smarter look-out as you went in. I nearly brushed against you as I closed the door behind me. Well, bye-bye, old man, and many thanks for the radium. It will help my pension out nicely. I'll leave the receiver off the telephone, so that you don't disturb your family. I wouldn't worry, Blyth. Think of the Black Hole of Calcutta, and be a man!"
"'I NEARLY BRUSHED AGAINST YOU.'"
Before Anstruther had reached the laboratory the Professor was hammering on the wall, and shouting at the top of his voice. The Major hurried through the window, climbed the garden wall, and had found his bicycle before the prisoner was released. By the time that the police were informed, he was well on his way to town.
And that is how Major Everett Anstruther was able to renew his subscription to the Burglars' Club.
VI.
THE BUNYAN MS.