"Get the gentleman's hat and coat," said the plain-clothes officer; and the policeman opened the door so suddenly that the maid was caught listening. "Jane, here, quick!" cried Huish. "Tell your mistress after we are gone that I am suddenly called away on business." "And won't be back to-night, my dear," said the officer. "Now, sir, are you ready?" Huish nodded, feeling confused and prostrated by the suddenness of the seizure. For a moment he half felt disposed to resist, but he refrained, and, stepping into the hall, the girl opened the door just as Dick came up the steps. "Why, Huish!" he cried in astonishment. "Hush!" cried the other. "Not a word to Gertrude. There is some mistake. Go up to your father, and bring him round to the station. It will be a question of bail, eh, constable?" "Yes, sir, I should think it would," said the officer drily; and, taking his prisoner's wrist, he hurried him into the cab. "Then it must be all true about him, and he's caught at last," muttered Dick, whose throat felt dry and lips parched. "Poor little Gertrude! What will her ladyship say?" He stood thinking of what he should do as the cab rolled away, and then entered slowly, feeling that he must leave matters a good deal to chance. But the deepest-laid scheme of breaking the news would have been blown to the winds, for the maid had hurried up open-mouthed to blurt out to Gertrude that master had been took, and that they were going to handcuff him and put him to prison for burglary. "Is this girl mad, Dick?" said Gertrude, who was trembling violently, while Sir Humphrey stood up hardly yet awake. "Some cock-and-bull nonsense--a blunder, I suppose," replied Dick hastily. "But she says the police--have taken my husband." "They--they--they are always making these confounded blunders, my dear," exclaimed the old man. "There, there, be quiet, my dear. Dick and I will go and see." "Yes, father, I was going to propose it. John wishes us to go. There, Gertrude, don't be stupid. I've no doubt it's all right." "Dick," she cried, catching his arm and gazing in his face; "you don't think so. There is some great trouble. What is it?" "I don't know--I can't tell; only that you are hindering us when we might be of service to John. Be a woman, Gertrude, and take all that comes as a wife should. There, there, don't cry. I'll come back as soon as I can." "I must go with you," she cried. "If my husband is in prison my place is by his side." "Yes, yes, my dear," said the old man querulously; "that's what they say in books, but the law won't stand it. Come along, Dick. I say, my boy," he whispered, as they reached the hall, "it's precious hard on me that my sons-in-law should get into such scrapes. What has John been doing?"