"Gently!" said I; "after all, he's a sick man." The colonel dropped the arm with a muttered oath, and Johnny said, sweetly: "Quits, isn't it, colonel?" The colonel turned from him, and said to his men sternly: "Have you had any hand in this?" They protested vehemently that they were as astonished as we were; and so they were, unless they acted consummately. They denied that anyone had entered the outer room or that any sound had proceeded from the inner. They swore they had kept vigilant watch, and must have seen an intruder. Both the men inside were the colonel's personal servants, and he believed their honesty; but what of their vigilance? Carr heard him sternly questioning them, on which he said: "Those chaps aren't to blame, colonel. I didn't come in that way. If you'll take a look behind the bed, you'll see another door. They brought me in there. I was rather queer and only half knew what was up." We looked and saw a door where he said. Pushing the bed aside, we opened it, and found ourselves on the back staircase of the premises. Clearly the President had noiselessly opened this door and got out. But how had Carr got in without noise? The sentry came up, and said: "Every five minutes, sir, I looked and saw him on the bed. He lay for the first hour in his clothes. The next look, he was undressed. It struck me he'd been pretty quick and quiet about it, but I thought no more." "Depend upon it, the dressed man was the President, the undressed man Carr! When was that?" "About half-past two, sir; just after the doctor came." "The doctor!" we cried. "Yes, sir; Dr. Anderson." "You never told me he had been here." "He never went into the President's--into General Whittingham's room, sir; but he came in here for five minutes, to get some brandy, and stood talking with us for a time. Half an hour after he came in for some more." We began to see how it was done. That wretched little doctor was in the plot. Somehow or other he had communicated with the President; probably he knew of the door. Then, I fancied, they must have worked something in this way. The doctor comes in to distract the sentries, while his Excellency moves the bed. Finding that they took a look every five minutes, he told the President. Then he went and got Johnny Carr ready. Returning, he takes the President's place on the bed, and in that character undergoes an inspection. The moment this is over, he leaps up and goes out. Between them they bring in Carr, put him into bed, and slip out through the narrow space of open door behind the bedstead. When all was done, the doctor had come back to see if any suspicion had been aroused. "I have it now!" cried the colonel. "That infernal doctor's done us both. He couldn't get Whittingham out of the house without leave, so he's taken him as Carr! Swindled me into giving my leave. Ah, look out, if we meet, Mr. Doctor!"