The suggestion met my views exactly. As soon as we had finished tea, we set forth, and in about ten minutes found ourselves in the bare and forbidding office attached to the station.
The presiding officer descended from a high stool, and, carefully laying down his pen, shook hands cordially.
"And what can I do for you gentlemen?" he asked, with an affable smile.
Stillbury proceeded to open our business.
"My friend here, Dr. Jervis, who has very kindly been looking after my work for a week or two, has had a most remarkable experience, and he wants to tell you about it."
"Something in my line of business?" the officer inquired.
"That," said I, "is for you to judge. I think it is, but you may think otherwise"; and hereupon, without further preamble, I plunged into the history of the case, giving him a condensed statement similar to that which I had already made to Stillbury.
He listened with close attention, jotting down from time to time a brief note on a sheet of paper; and, when I had finished, he wrote out in a black-covered notebook a short précis of my statement.
"I have written down here," he said, "the substance of what you have told me. I will read the deposition over to you, and, if it is correct, I will ask you to sign it."
He did so, and, when I had signed the document, I asked him what was likely to be done in the matter.