"Servant, sir," said he, with a respectful bow, and a glance at Bowker, which took in the baldness of his head, the thickness of his beard, the slovenliness of his apparel, and the very shape of his boots,--"servant, sir. You asked for me?" "I did, Mr. Blackett. Ive come to ask your advice and assistance in a rather delicate manner, in which you've already been engaged--Lord Caterham's inquiry." "O, beg pardon, sir. Quite right. Friend of his lordship's, may I ask, sir?" "Lord Caterham is dead, Mr.--" "Quite right, sir; all right, sir. Right to be cautious in these matters; don't know who you are, sir. If you had not known that fact, must have ordered you out, sir. Imposter, of course. All on the square, Mr.--beg pardon; didn't mention your name, sir." "My name is Bowker. To a friend of mine, too ill now to follow the matter himself; Lord Caterham on his deathbed wrote a letter, detailing the circumstances under which he had employed you in tracing a young woman. That friend has himself been very ill, or he would have pursued this matter sooner. He now sends me to ask whether you have any news?" "Beg pardon, sir; can't be too cautious in this matter. What may be the name of that friend?" "Ludlow--Mr. Geoffrey Ludlow." "Right you are, sir! Know the name well; have seen Mr. Ludlow at his lordship's; a pleasant gentleman too, sir, though not given me the idea of one to take much interest in such a business as this. However, I see we're all square on that point, sir; and I'll report to you as exactly as I would to my lord, if he'd been alive--feeling, of course, that a gentleman's a gentleman, and that an officer's trouble will be remunerated--" "You need not doubt that, Mr. Blackett." "I don't doubt it, sir; more especially when you hear what I have got to tell. It's been a wearing business, Mr. Bowker, and that I don't deny; there have been many cases which I have tumbled-to quicker, and have been able to lay my finger upon parties quicker but this has been a long chase; and though other members of the force has chaffed me, as it were, wanting to know when I shall be free for any thing else, and that sort of thing, there's been that excitement in it that Ive never regretted the time bestowed, and felt sure I should hit at it last. My ideas has not been wrong in that partic'ler, Mr. Bowker; I _have_ hit it at last!" "The devil you have!"