"'Indeed, sir!' says I. And at that he simply roared out laughing. 'Brown,' he cries, 'you'll be the death of me!' I was very much astonished, sir, and I thought that you'd taken leave of your senses, sir, but after you--that is to say--_he_--after he'd got over his laughing--he looks me in the face and says--says he--'Brown, you fool, 'can't you see I'm not your master! Here look at my thumbs!' And sure enough, sir, he had both his thumbs quite complete, sir, and then I knew he couldn't be you, sir! I was that dumbfounded for a bit, sir, that I was ready to sink through the floor, and all I could do was just gape at his hands. Then of a sudden he whips one of them into his pocket, sir, and he pulled out a pistol, which he clapped to my head. 'Listen to me, Brown!' says he, very quiet like, but in a terrible voice, sir, 'Listen to me, Brown!' says he. 'Your master is in Newhaven by now, and he can't get back till the morning. When he comes tell him from me, that his double will find out to-night all he wants to know, and that he'll hear from me within a week. Tell him, too, that he needn't bother suspecting young Sefton, I could have got the young ass to help me if I'd wanted, but he was too great a fool, and I scorn to have him blamed. Tell Sir William I'm playing a lone hand, and that it rests with him to keep it a lone hand. And now, Brown, you just stay here for the next half hour, while I go through the house, and don't you budge, or as sure as death I'll plug a bullet through your brains!' "With that, sir, he dragged me into a corner, and put my face to the wall--and--and--I stayed there, sir!" "What!" thundered my master. "How long?" I began to whimper. "I--I--take shame to admit I played the coward, sir," I blubbed out. "But if--if you'd heard him--speak, sir--and seen the look in his eyes--sir--you--you--may be----'" "Enough!" he interjected very sharply. "I'm not blaming you, my man, I'm asking for information. How long did you stay in the corner where he put you?" "A long while, sir." "How soon did he leave the house?" "I don't know, sir. I seemed to hear noises for hours and hours, sir--and--and--" here I broke down with a really artistic sob. "It's turned me quite grey, sir--all about the temples--and I was brown as brown--last evening, sir!" Sir William got to his feet and placed a hand upon my shoulder. "There, there, Brown, compose yourself!" he said in kinder tones. "I can see that you have had a great fright, and you were right to run no risks. But tell me did you send for the police after you discovered that the man had gone?" "I--no, sir," I stammered. "You told me on no account to leave the house!" "Brown!" he cried indignantly. "Well, sir--I--I--I--simply daren't venture outside the house, sir!" I blurted out.