Baker brought his fist down with a bang on to the wooden table by which he was standing. Mr Gilbert eyed him in his eager, terrier-like fashion, as if he were seeking for a weak point on which to make an attack. Then, suddenly, again his manner altered. Ignoring Baker's question as completely as if it had never been asked, he diverted the man's attention from the expected answer by all at once plunging into entirely different matters. Before he knew what was happening Baker found himself subjected to a stringent examination of a kind for which he was wholly unprepared. The solicitor slipped from point to point in a fashion which so confused his client's stupid senses that, by the time the interview was over, Jim Baker had but the vaguest notion of what he had said or left unsaid.
Mr Gilbert went straight from the gaol to a post-office from which he dispatched this reply-paid telegram:--
"To Hugh Morice, Oak Dene.
"When I was once able to do you a service you said that, if ever the chance offered, you would do me one in return. You can do me such a service by giving me some dinner and a bed for to-night.
"Ernest Gilbert.
"George Hotel, Winchester."
He lunched at the George Hotel. While he was smoking an after-luncheon cigar an answer came. Hugh Morice wired to say that if he arrived by a certain train he would meet him at the station. Mr Gilbert travelled by that train, and was met. It was only after a tête-à-tête dinner that anything was said as to the reason why the lawyer had invited himself to be the other's guest.
"I suppose you're wondering why I've forced myself upon your hospitality?"
"I hope that nothing in my manner has caused you to think anything of the kind. I assure you that I'm very glad to see you."
"It's very nice of you to say so. Still, considering how I've thrown myself at you out of the clouds you can hardly help but wonder."