‘What is the meaning of this outrage in my house?’ exclaimed the Squire. ‘Release this gentleman at once. He is my guest.’
‘I told you so,’ ejaculated the Major, still too angry to realise fully the humiliating as well as ludicrous position in which he stood.
The detective answered the Squire respectfully and firmly: ‘This is my card, sir; my name is Kidman. I am a police officer, and was sent down here to watch the movements of a man known to the police under various aliases. This is the person I have been seeking. He is pretty well disguised with his dyed hair’ (the Major shuddered: the thunderbolt had fallen at last!); ‘but his height and figure correspond precisely with this photograph.’ He displayed the portrait of a man whose figure was certainly like the Major’s, and, allowing for the effect of disguise, there might even be discovered some resemblance in the features.
‘I tell you this is preposterous,’ the Squire said impatiently. ‘I will be responsible to you for this gentleman.’
‘Well, sir, of course the affair must be disagreeable to you, only you are not the first gentleman he has taken in.’
‘I say, release him at once. If you refuse, it will be at your peril. I am a justice of the peace.’
‘So much the better, sir; and in that case you will permit me to tell you the circumstances under which I arrest this—gentleman. I have been on the lookout for him; and from information received that an attack was to be made upon your house, I came here this evening to watch. I posted myself in the shrubbery; and not half an hour ago, whilst you were at dinner, I saw him look from that window to spy if the coast was clear’——
‘I was looking for you, Squire,’ interrupted the Major.
‘I couldn’t guess how he had got in without me seeing him, but that is explained by his being a guest of yours. I knew he was at work, and so stepped quietly in after him. I found him so busy at one of the drawers of this table that I managed to slip these ornaments on his wrists before he could turn round.’
‘At the drawers of the table!’ ejaculated several voices, whilst all looked in amazed horror at the culprit.