"Screw, I suppose?" said the doctor,
looking inquiringly at the officers.

"Exactly," said the principal man of the
two. " We have been secretly corresponding
with him for weeks past. We have nabbed
the man who went out with him, and got him
safe at Barkingham. Don't expect Screw
back with the ledger. As soon as he has
made sure that the rest of you are in the
house, he is to fetch another man or two of
our Bow Street lot, who are waiting to come
in till they hear from us. We only want an
old man and a young one, and a third pal of
yours who's a gentleman born, to make a
regular clearance in the house. When we
have once got you all, it will be the prettiest
capture that's ever been made since I was in
the force."

What the doctor answered to this I cannot say.
Just as the officer had done speaking,
I heard footsteps approaching the room
in which I was listening. Was Screw looking
for me ?  I instantly closed the peep-hole,
and got behind the door. It opened back
upon me, and, sure enough, Screw entered
cautiously.

An empty old wardrobe stood opposite the
door. Evidently suspecting that I might
have taken the alarm and concealed myself
inside it, he approached it on tip-toe. On
tiptoe also I followed him; and, just as his
hands were on the wardrobe door, my hands
were on his throat. I had the disadvantage
of being obliged to seize him from behind;
but he was fortunately a little man, and no
match for me. I easily and gently laid him
on his back, in a voiceless and half-
suffocated state—throwing myself right over
him, to keep his legs quiet. When I saw his
face getting black, and his small eyes growing
largely globular, I let go with one hand,
crammed my empty plaster of Paris bag,
which lay close by, into his mouth, tied it
fast, secured his hands and feet, and then left
him perfectly harmless, while I took counsel
with myself how best to secure my own
safety.

I should have made my escape at once;
but for what I heard the officer say about the
men who were waiting to come in. Were
they waiting near or at a distance? Were
they on the watch at the front or the back of
the house? I thought it highly desirable to
give myself what chance there might be of
ascertaining their whereabouts from the talk
of the officers in the next room, before I
risked the possibility of running right into
their clutches. So I cautiously opened the
peep-hole once more.

The doctor appeared to be still on the
most friendly terms with his vigilant
guardians from Bow Street.

"Have you any objection to my ringing for
some lunch, before we are all taken off to
London together? " I heard him ask in his
most cheerful tones. " A glass of wine and a
bit of bread and cheese won't do you any
harm, gentlemen, if you are as hungry as I
am."

"If you want to eat and drink, order the
victuals at once," replied one of the runners,
sulkily. "We don't happen to want
anything ourselves."

"Sorry for it," said the doctor. " I have
some of the best old Madeira in England."

"Like enough," retorted the officer, sar-
castically. " But you see we are not quite
such fools as we look; and we have heard of
such a thing, in our time, as hocussed wine."

"O fie! fie! " exclaimed the doctor,
merrily. "Remember how well I am behaving
myself, and don't wound my feelings by
suspecting me of such shocking treachery as
that!"

He moved to a corner of the room behind
him, and touched a nob in the wall which I
had never before observed. A bell rang
directly, which had a new tone in it to my
ears.

"Too bad," said the doctor, turning round
again to the runners; " really too bad,
gentlemen, to suspect me of that!"

Shaking his head deprecatingly, he moved
back to the corner, pulled aside something in
the wall, disclosed the mouth of a pipe which
I had never seen before, and called down
it:—

"Moses!"

It was the first time I had heard that name
in the house.

"Who is Moses? " inquired the officers
both together, advancing on him suspiciously.

"Only my servant," answered the doctor.
He turned once more to the pipe, and called
down it:—

"Bring up the Stilton Cheese, and a bottle
of the Old Madeira."

The cheese we had in cut at that time
was of purely Dutch extraction. I remembered
Port, Sherry, and Claret, in my palmy
dinner-days at the doctor's family table; but
certainly not Old Madeira. Perhaps he
selfishly kept his best wine and his choicest
cheese for his own consumption.

"Sam," said one of the runners to the
other, " you look to our civil friend here, and
I'll grab Moses when he brings up the
lunch."

"Would you like to see what the operation
of coining is, while my man is getting the
lunch ready? " said the doctor. " It may be
of use to me at the trial, if you can testify
that I afforded you every facility for finding
out anything you might want to know. Only
you mention my polite anxiety to make
things easy and instructive from the very
first, and I may get recommended to mercy.
See here—this queer-looking machine,
gentlemen (from which two of my men derive
their nick-names), is what we call a Mill-and-
Screw."

He began to explain the machine with the
manner and tone of a lecturer at a scientific
institution. In spite of themselves, the officers