Chelda slipped before him, but she was as a straw in the fury of the wind. She would be forced to allow him to go raging through the house, when to her relief there was a pressure from the hall and Captain White insinuated himself into the room. "Hello!" he said, deftly shutting the door behind him. "So you've turned up again, piggy." H. Robinson hurled an offensive epithet at him and ordered him to let him pass. "Not so fast," said Captain White, gripping him by the arm. "You just sit down and talk this affair over with me. It ain't one to be left to ladies. Now, what do you want, Solomon Thundercloud?" "I want that man," said H. Robinson, shaking his blue paper in his face. "H'm--Louis Lancaster--accused of so and so--wanted for so and so. Well, you've come to the right place, my friend." "He's here. I knew it," and the detective gave Chelda a sullen glare. "Sit down, sit down," pursued Captain White. "Don't get in such a heat. He'll be back soon." "Where is he?" vociferated the angry man. "Just taking a little turn with Miss Gastonguay. You know she's got a soft heart for rogues." "A turn where? I've got to arrest him." "Yes, yes, I know. You've got a very decent four-wheeler to take him to jail. You shall have him this time, sure pop. I guess our chief of police ain't as smart as you are." "He's a--" began the detective, then he looked at Chelda and stretched out his hand toward the door. "If you don't keep still and discuss this matter," cried Captain White, falling into sudden excitement, "I'll give you a walloping compared with which our little play the other day would be but the breath of a suggestion. Keep still, you idiot. You've got the day before you, and I'm on your side. I vow to you, you sha'n't leave French Cross till you lay your hand on that man's shoulder." H. Robinson sulkily lowered himself into a chair. "First and foremost, I'm not bamboozling you. Lancaster is here. He wanted to have a talk with Miss Gastonguay, and she's taken him out in her steam yacht." H. Robinson put his hands up to his head and clutched his scanty side locks. "They're coming back, they're coming back. I'll stake all I have on it. You wait here. I'll wait with you." "I must go out on the river," said the detective, in a hollow voice. "I must follow." "Hold on," ejaculated Captain White, pushing him back on his seat. Then he opened the door. "Gordon, Gordon, come here." The chief of police came hurrying to the spot. "Look here," said Captain White, "tell that man I'm not a fake." "What's up now?" asked the newcomer, eyeing the detective. "He's after a bank breaker," pursued Captain White, "and I'm trying to give him information, and he thinks I'm lying." "Oh, he is, is he? I didn't know but that he was dreaming with his eyes open," said the chief, superciliously surveying the purple-visaged man on the other side of the table. "He don't belong to any staff. I never heard of him before."