t. x. came from downing street at 11 o'clock one night, and hisheart was filled with joy and gratitude.

he swung his stick to the common danger of the public, but thepoliceman on point duty at the end of the street, who saw him,recognized and saluted him, did not think it fit to issue anyofficial warning.

he ran up the stairs to his office, and found mansus reading theevening paper.

"my poor, dumb beast," said t. x. "i am afraid i have kept youwaiting for a very long time, but tomorrow you and i will take alittle journey to devonshire. it will be good for you, mansus -where did you get that ridiculous name, by the way!""m. or n.," replied mansus, laconically.

"i repeat that there is the dawn of an intellect in you," said t.

x., offensively.

he became more serious as he took from a pocket inside hiswaistcoat a long blue envelope containing the paper which had costhim so much to secure.

"finding the revolver was a master-stroke of yours, mansus," hesaid, and he was in earnest as he spoke.

the man coloured with pleasure for the subordinates of t. x. lovedhim, and a word of praise was almost equal to promotion. it wason the advice of mansus that the road from london to lewes hadbeen carefully covered and such streams as passed beneath thatroad had been searched.

the revolver had been found after the third attempt betweengatwick and horsley. its identification was made easier by thefact that vassalaro's name was engraved on the butt. it wasrather an ornate affair and in its earlier days had been silverplated; the handle was of mother-o'-pearl,"obviously the gift of one brigand to another," was t. x.'scomment.

armed with this, his task would have been fairly easy, but when tothis evidence he added a rough draft of the threatening letterwhich he had found amongst vassalaro's belongings, and which hadevidently been taken down at dictation, since some of the wordswere misspelt and had been corrected by another hand, the case wascomplete.

but what clinched the matter was the finding of a wad of thatpeculiar chemical paper, a number of sheets of which t. x. hadignited for the information of the chief commissioner and the homesecretary by simply exposing them for a few seconds to the lightof an electric lamp.

instantly it had filled the home secretary's office with a pungentand most disagreeable smoke, for which he was heartily cursed byhis superiors. but it had rounded off the argument.

he looked at his watch.

"i wonder if it is too late to see mrs. lexman," he said.

"i don't think any hour would be too late," suggested mansus.

"you shall come and chaperon me," said his superior.

but a disappointment awaited. mrs. lexman was not in and neitherthe ringing at her electric bell nor vigorous applications to theknocker brought any response. the hall porter of the flats whereshe lived was under the impression that mrs. lexman had gone outof town. she frequently went out on saturdays and returned on themonday and, he thought, occasionally on tuesdays.

it happened that this particular night was a monday night and t.

x. was faced with a dilemma. the night porter, who had only thevaguest information on the subject, thought that the day portermight know more, and aroused him from his sleep.

yes, mrs. lexman had gone. she went on the sunday, an unusual dayto pay a week-end visit, and she had taken with her two bags. theporter ventured the opinion that she was rather excited, but whenasked to define the symptoms relapsed into a chaos of incoherent"you-knows" and "what-i-means.""i don't like this," said t. x.,suddenly. "does anybody know thatwe have made these discoveries?""nobody outside the office," said mansus, "unless, unless . . . ""unless what?" asked the other, irritably. "don't be a jimp,mansus. get it off your mind. what is it?""i am wondering," said mansus slowly, "if the landlord at greatjames street said anything. he knows we have made a search.""we can easily find that out," said t. x.

they hailed a taxi and drove to great james street. thatrespectable thoroughfare was wrapped in sleep and it was some timebefore the landlord could be aroused. recognizing t. x. hechecked his sarcasm, which he had prepared for a keyless lodger,and led the way into the drawing room.

"you didn't tell me not to speak about it, mr. meredith," he said,in an aggrieved tone, "and as a matter of fact i have spoken tonobody except the gentleman who called the same day.""what did he want?" asked t. x.

"he said he had only just discovered that mr. vassalaro had stayedwith me and he wanted to pay whatever rent was due," replied theother.

"what like of man was he?" asked t. x.

the brief description the man gave sent a cold chill to thecommissioner's heart.

"kara for a ducat!" he said, and swore long and variously.

"cadogan square," he ordered.

his ring was answered promptly. mr. kara was out of town, hadindeed been out of town since saturday. this much the man-servantexplained with a suspicious eye upon his visitors, rememberingthat his predecessor had lost his job from a too confidingfriendliness with spurious electric fitters. he did not know whenmr. kara would return, perhaps it would be a long time and perhapsa short time. he might come back that night or he might not.

"you are wasting your young life," said t. x. bitterly. "youought to be a fortune teller.""this settles the matter," he said, in the cab on the way back.

"find out the first train for tavistock in the morning and wirethe george hotel to have a car waiting.""why not go to-night?" suggested the other. "there is themidnight train. it is rather slow, but it will get you there bysix or seven in the morning.""too late," he said, "unless you can invent a method of gettingfrom here to paddington in about fifty seconds."the morning journey to devonshire was a dispiriting one despitethe fineness of the day. t. x. had an uncomfortable sense thatsomething distressing had happened. the run across the moor inthe fresh spring air revived him a little.

as they spun down to the valley of the dart, mansus touched hisarm.

"look at that," he said, and pointed to the blue heavens where, amile above their heads, a white-winged aeroplane, looking nolarger than a very distant dragon fly, shimmered in the sunlight.

"by jove!" said t. x. "what an excellent way for a man to escape!""it's about the only way," said mansus.

the significance of the aeroplane was borne in upon t. x. a fewminutes later when he was held up by an armed guard. a glance athis card was enough to pass him.

"what is the matter?" he asked.

"a prisoner has escaped," said the sentry.

"escaped - by aeroplane?" asked t. x.

"i don't know anything about aeroplanes, sir. all i know is thatone of the working party got away."the car came to the gates of the prison and t. x. sprang out,followed by his assistant. he had no difficulty in finding thegovernor, a greatly perturbed man, for an escape is a very seriousmatter.

the official was inclined to be brusque in his manner, but againthe magic card produced a soothing effect.

"i am rather rattled," said the governor. "one of my men has gotaway. i suppose you know that?""and i am afraid another of your men is going away, sir," said t.

x., who had a curious reverence for military authority. heproduced his paper and laid it on the governor's table.

"this is an order for the release of john lexman, convicted undersentence of fifteen years penal servitude."the governor looked at it.

"dated last night," he said, and breathed a long sigh of relief.

"thank the lord! - that is the man who escaped!"