since your departure, has become duller than ditch water. First, dear old Eton, and then your coming to Ehrenbreitstein, have made me feel how impossible it is to live a life worth living without a friend to love and confide in. But I must tell you how the affair came about, with all particulars, in proper order.

Well, then, a few days after you left, Mrs. Massenger went to dine with the Disneys at Pottlehampton, and wore on that solemn occasion the diamond brooch about which we used to laugh at her, because she was always boasting of it as the bequest of her Aunt Trickleback. When she came home at night, she replaced the brooch in her dressing-case, but, when she opened the latter two or three days afterwards, the brooch had disappeared, and along with it twenty sovereigns which the old lady (what a rage she would be in if she knew I called her old) had hoarded up, "unbeknown" to her husband. Madame was perfectly furious at her loss, and insisted on the matter being put into the hands of two detectives from Manchester. These worthies-Diggles and Breffit were their respective and respectable names-seem to have acted with great tact and discretion. It was evident that no violence had been used in opening the box; they

therefore decided that it must have been opened by means of a false key-a wax impression having somehow been obtained from the original. They accordingly made inquiries at Ossington, and speedily ascertained that a short time before "a young gentleman" had brought the pattern of a key to a locksmith there, and had said he wanted a duplicate made for his desk. Locksmith could not remember what the "young gent" was like, but had an idea he had "carrotty" hair. Making further inquiries at Ossington, Diggles and Breffit discovered that "a young lady," name unknown, had taken two diamonds to a jeweller in the High Street, and wanted to sell one of them, and to have the other made up into a ring. The stones, she said, had been. left her by an aunt. The jeweller, who seems to have been a consummate rascal, gave the girl £8 for one of the diamonds, which was worth £20 at the least, and took the commission for the ring. Jeweller didn't know the girl by sight, but his shopman "thought she was a larky one," and followed her to the door for a bit of chat when she left the shop, and noticed that she went straight to the establishment of Messrs. Tackham and Gridray, the Drapers. Tackham and Gridray remembered the girl's coming, and that they had sold her a hat-a red velvet hat, with

a yellow feather in it, because she said she wanted one "fit for the wife of a lord." Thereupon Messrs. Diggles and Breffit returned in triumph, and learned that Betsey Slocombe had appeared the previous Sunday in church in a marvellous hat, which exactly tallied with Messrs. Tackham and Gridray's description. The appearance, in fact, of the young lady in question was so utterly absurd, that I myself saw lots of people burst out into fits of derisive laughter as she passed down the aisle. The detectives now had nothing to do but to get a warrant for Miss Betsey's apprehension, which they effected within two hours of their return. The girl was terribly frightened, but, seeing how much the detectives knew, she acknowledged that she had had two of the missing diamonds in her possession, but declared that Cubleigh had put them into her hands, and that she had only disposed of them in accordance with his directions. The next thing was to test the truth of her accusation; and to this at length old Massenger consented, though with great reluctance, and only when Madame positively insisted on its being done. The detectives effected their purpose in what you will agree with me in thinking an ingenious manner. To us-i.e., to "Young Guttles" and your humble servant-sitting grinding over our

Tacitus, enters a respectable, middle-aged mechanic in shirt sleeves and a dirty apron, which had once been white (Diggles got up to his part to perfection), and begins to boggle over the lock of old Massenger's writing-table.

"Bother this 'ere lock!" cries Diggles, "it's got 'ampered, so as no key o' mine will open on it. I on'y wish my mate 'ad the job i'stead o' I, for I'm more used to bell'anging than to locksmithing, I am. I won'er whether one o' you two young gents 'as got a key as 'ud fit, and 'ud be so werry good as to lend 'un for a minnit?"

Thus adjured, Cubleigh and I, with the innocence of sucking doves, handed over our bunches of keys to the pseudo-locksmith, who at once spots the false key amongst those belonging to Cubleigh.

"Why, I've the right key arter all on t'other bunch," cries Diggles; "what a softy I is, to be sure; but thanks to you, gents, all the same;" and, so saying, he opened the drawer with a flourish, banged it to again, returned our keys with a merry twinkle in his eyes, and left the room to report what he had discovered.

I believe that fellow's a fool," remarked Cubleigh, as the man went out; "did you notice his idiotic grin as he left the room?"

H

Upon this, Massenger sent off express to telegraph. for Lord Guttleborough, and next morning the great man arrived soon after breakfast. He was closeted with the Doctor for more than an hour, and then the two came into the room where we were sitting. Cubleigh seemed utterly flabbergasted at the unlooked-for appearance of his father, but he put on a sickly smile as he went up to greet him.

"No, sir," cried my Lord, in a terrible voice, "don't attempt to speak to me; I'll bandy no words

with you; but come up into your bedroom at once.

And you," he added, turning to me, "having, as I understand, been present at another search for stolen goods, I have thought it right to ask Dr. Massenger's permission to request your Grace to come upstairs a second time for a similar purpose."

All I could do, though I confess I was dying of curiosity, was to bow assent, and then up we all went into Cubleigh's room. Lord Guttleborough seemed in no mood to spare his son. He compelled him to rummage out even the smallest articles. Once, in a sudden fit of fury, he tore down a photograph from the wall, and crushed it, frame and all, under his feet. At length we came to Cubleigh's desk.

66

Open that," said my Lord, sternly.