"There was two or three yesterday," the man said; "let's see." He took the sketch and retired to a corner of his room. "Oh, yes--here it is, I think; isn't this it? Do you claim it?" "Well, not exactly that, but I think I'll take a look at it, if you'll let me. By the way, I see it's rolled up. Was it found like that?" "No; the chap rolled it up what found it--porter he was. It's a fad of his, rolling up umbrellas close and neat, and he's rather proud of it. He often looks as though he'd like to take a man's umbrella away and roll it up for him when it's a bit clumsy done. Rum fad, eh?" "Yes; everybody has his little fad, though. Where was this found--close by here?" "Yes, sir; just there, almost opposite this window, in the little corner." "About two o'clock?" "Ah, about that time, more or less." Hewitt took the umbrella up, unfastened the band, and shook the silk out loose. Then he opened it, and as he did so a small scrap of paper fell from inside it. Hewitt pounced on it like lightning. Then, after examining the umbrella thoroughly, inside and out, he handed it back to the man, who had not observed the incident of the scrap of paper. "That will do, thanks," he said. "I only wanted to take a peep at it--just a small matter connected with a little case of mine. Good-morning." He turned suddenly and saw, gazing at him with a terrified expression from a door behind, the face of the woman who had followed him in the cab. The veil was lifted, and he caught but a mere glance of the face ere it was suddenly withdrawn. He stood for a moment to allow the woman time to retreat, and then left the station and walked toward his office, close by. Scarcely thirty yards along the Strand he met Plummer. "I'm going to make some much closer inquiries all down the line as far as Dover," Plummer said. "They wire from Calais that they have no clue as yet, and I mean to make quite sure, if I can, that Laker hasn't quietly slipped off the line somewhere between here and Dover. There's one very peculiar thing," Plummer added confidentially. "Did you see the two women who were waiting to see a member of the firm at Liddle, Neal & Liddle's?" "Yes. Laker's mother and his _fiancée_, I was told." "That's right. Well, do you know that girl--Shaw her name is--has been shadowing me ever since I left the Bank. Of course I spotted it from the beginning--these amateurs don't know how to follow anybody--and, as a matter of fact, she's just inside that jeweller's shop door behind me now, pretending to look at the things in the window. But it's odd, isn't it?" "Well," Hewitt replied, "of course it's not a thing to be neglected. If you'll look very carefully at the corner of Villiers Street, without appearing to stare, I think you will possibly observe some signs of Laker's mother. She's shadowing _me_." Plummer looked casually in the direction indicated, and then immediately turned his eyes in another direction.