"You've only to send the money they ask for, and they'll be glad enough to get rid of him. But I wouldn't hurry; I'd let him wait a bit--you'll see him soon enough, never fear." The prophecy was fulfilled sooner than the prophet expected. Scarcely were the words out of her mouth when a cab was heard to draw up at the door, and a moment later Fladgate himself, a big, jovial man, wearing a white hat very much on one side, entered the room and threw a bundle of rugs on the sofa. "Home again, old girl, and glad of it! Mornin', Mrs. Quelch," said the new-comer. Mrs. Fladgate gazed at him doubtfully for a moment, and then flung her arms round his neck, ejaculating, "Saved, saved!" "Martha," said Mrs. Quelch, reprovingly, "have you no self-respect? Is _this_ the way you deal to so shameful a deception?" Then, turning the supposed offender, "So, Mr. Fladgate, you have escaped from your foreign prison." "Foreign, how much? Have you both gone dotty, ladies? I've just escaped from a third-class carriage on the London and Northwestern. The space is limited, but I never heard it called a foreign prison." "It is useless to endeavour to deceive us," said Mrs. Quelch, sternly. "Look at that telegram, Mr. Fladgate, and deny it if you can. You have been gadding about in some vile foreign place with my misguided husband." "Oh, Quelch is in it too, is he? Then it _must_ be a bad case. But let's see what we have been up to, for, 'pon my word, I'm quite in the dark at present." He held out his hand for the telegram, and read it carefully. "Somebody's been having a lark with you, old lady," he said to his wife. "You know well enough where I've been--my regular northern journey, and nowhere else." "I don't believe a word of it," said Mrs. Quelch, "you men are all alike--deceivers, every one of you." "Much obliged for your good opinion, Mrs. Quelch. I had no idea Quelch was such a bad lot. But, so far as I am concerned, the thing's easily tested. Here is the bill for my bed last night at Carlisle. Now if I was in Carlisle and larking about at Dieppe at the same time, perhaps you'll kindly explain how I managed it." Mrs. Quelch was staggered, but not convinced. "But if--if you were at Carlisle, where is Benjamin, and what does this telegram mean?" "Not being a wizard, I really can't say; but concerning Quelch, we shall find him, never fear. When did he disappear?" Mrs. Quelch told her story, not forgetting the mysterious letter. "I think I see daylight," said Fladgate. "The party who has got into that mess is Quelch, and, being frightened out of his wits, he has given my name instead of his own. That's about the size of it!" "But Benjamin doesn't smoke; and how should he come to be at Dieppe?"