"Let me go!" cried the man, struggling to get free. "Come into the house with me--quick, quick, or the murderers will escape!" "_You_ don't escape," said Applebee. "Keep still, or I'll knock you on the head." And he tightened his hand on the man's throat. At this moment his summons for assistance was answered by the respectable mechanic who had twice inquired the way to Holborn. "What's up?" he inquired. Applebee pulled out his bull's eye lamp, and turned its light upon the new arrival. "Oh, it's you," he said. "I call upon you in the Queen's name to assist me in arresting this man." "Right you are," replied Lambert, in the half tipsy voice of the mechanic. "Are you mad?" cried the man. "They will escape, I tell you! Come with me into that house!" "Keep still!" growled Applebee, shaking his captive roughly. "What do you charge him with?" asked Lambert, keeping up the fiction. "Murder," said Applebee. "The murder of Samuel Boyd!" "That's a find," said Lambert. "Let's have a look at him." And to the constable's astonishment he also pulled out a bull's-eye lamp. "Who are you?" demanded Applebee. "My name is Lambert," said the detective, dropping his disguise. "I might have guessed it; but don't forget that _I_ made this arrest." "You shall have the credit of it." The light of two bull's-eye lamps was thrown upon the man's face. "By George! It's Dick Remington." "Absent on business," observed Applebee, sarcastically. "The murder's out. What's that he's dropped?" Lambert picked it up. "A mask!" It was the mask of a Chinaman's face; and moreover, Dick's outer garment was that of a Mongolian, resembling the garment of the wax figure in the office from which but a few minutes ago he had escaped. "Look here, Mr. Lambert, look here, Applebee," said Dick, eagerly---- "Stop, Dick Remington," interrupted Lambert. "Don't you think you had better shut your mouth? We're bound to take you to the station, and charge you. When you're brought before the magistrate you can tell your story if you like. Take my advice." "So far as my story is concerned I will," said Dick, "but in that house are the murderers of Samuel Boyd. For heaven's sake don't leave the place without arresting them!" "If he gets us into the house," remarked Applebee, "we're done for." "We shall be three to two," urged Dick, despairingly. "If your story's true," corrected Applebee, "we shall be two to three. What's this in your hand? A sword-stick?" "No," said Dick, and his heart fell; he was beginning to realise the danger he was in, "it is not a weapon. I will explain everything at the proper time. Mr. Lambert, I implore you to search that house." "Constable Applebee has spoken like a careful and sensible man," said Lambert, "but we'll see if we can equalise matters." Taking his police call from his pocket he sent his summons through Deadman's Court. "Blow yours, too, Applebee."