Caught! Here we were, the Blue Domino and myself, the Grey Capuchin, both of us in a fine fix. Discovery and ejection I could have stood with fortitude and equanimity; but there was bad business afoot. There wasn't any doubt in my mind what was going to happen. As the girl said, there would be flaring head-lines and horrid pictures. We were like to be the newspaper sensation of the day. Arrested and lodged in jail! What would my rich, doting old uncle say to that, who had threatened to disinherit me for lesser things! I felt terribly sorry for the girl, but it was now utterly impossible to help her, for I couldn't help myself. And behold! The mysterious stranger I had met in the curio-shop, the fellow who had virtually haunted me for six hours, the fellow who had masqueraded as Caesar, suddenly loomed up before me, still wearing his sardonic smile. At his side were two more policemen. He had thrown aside his toga and was in evening dress. His keen glance rested on me. "Here he is, Mr. Haggerty!" cried the policeman cheerfully, swinging me around. A detective! And Heaven help me, he believed me to be the thief! Oh, for Aladdin's lamp! VI I stood with folded arms, awaiting his approach. Nonchalance is always respected by the police. I must have presented a likely picture, however--my face blackened with coal-dust, cobwebs stringing down over my eyes, my Capuchin gown soiled and rent. The girl quietly took her place beside me. "So you took a chance at the cellars, eh?" inquired the detective urbanely. "Well, you look it. Will you go with us quietly, or shall we have to use force?" "In the first place, what do you and your police want of _me_?" I returned coolly. He exhibited his star of authority. "I am Haggerty of the Central Office. I want you for several things." Several things? I stared at him stupidly. Several things? Then it came to me, with a jar like an earthquake. The story in the newspaper returned to my vision. Oh, this was too much, altogether too much! He took me to be the fashionable thief for whom half the New York police force were hunting. My sight swam for a moment in a blur. "What is it you think I have done?" I demanded. "You have, or have had, several thousand dollars' worth of gems on your person to-night." I shrugged. The accusation was so impossible that my confidence returned. "Mr. Haggerty, you are making a stupid mistake. You are losing time, besides. I am not the man for whom you are hunting. My name is Richard Comstalk." "One name or another, it does not matter." "Plenty of gall," murmured one of the minions of the law, whom I afterward learned was the chief of the village police. "The card by which you gained admittance here," demanded the great Haggerty truculently. I surrendered it. A crowd had by this time collected curiously about us. I could see the musicians on the stage peering over the plants.