“First-rate, sir. Here goes then,” and I started at the beginning when Pride and I drove up to the house of Ivanovitch the preceding afternoon and told him everything that had happened to me since. When I had finished the story he nodded. “Peters had it as straight as a die. But it’s as well to have the details confirmed in a case of this magnitude. Eh, Peters?” The captain laughed. “It is that, sir. But I listened pretty carefully. I’ve come across some queer tales in my time. But Mr. Clayton here has them all beat.” He turned to me. “You had better join the police, Mr. Clayton, for a quiet life. _I_ never ran across anything like it.” “Would you tell me the plans you have made, sir?” I asked. “I know these customers pretty well now.” “Certainly.” He drew a little closer and lowered his voice. “From your description of the place, they must have a pretty big staff of men there, so I am not taking any chances. I have a force of fifty plain-clothes men, some of them police patrolmen and some Secret Service operatives. I have called in all the men I could lay my hands on at such short notice. That is, the men that I could rely on with certainty. And Captain Peters here vouches for the policemen. “It’s about four o’clock in the afternoon now. The fifty men are taking the 4.30 train from the Pennsylvania in plain clothes, and will get off at the ——— station, after changing at Jamaica. They will wait there till we arrive. You and Peters and I and possibly another operative will go down by car, meet the men outside the ——— station and lead them to the place. What do you think of the plan?” I thought for a moment. “Are we going in one car or two, sir?” “Why, I don’t know. Two, I think, because it will be easier to conceal ourselves. You see we cannot take you by train for fear you might be recognized. We don’t want to warn them and give them a chance to skip out. You were killed last night in ——— police station, by the way. Did you know that? It’s in the afternoon papers.” I grinned. “That was a mighty good idea, sir. Unless they followed Captain Peters’ car. I have a good deal of respect for them.” “There was nobody about when you left the station-house. And you were carried in here and might as well have been a corpse.” “That’s right. But I would suggest two cars, sir. They blew up Pride and wrecked him, you see, and they may try that again. And there won’t be many of us to fight them off if they stop us. But if the other operative and I go ahead in the first car, we can spring the trap, if there is one. Then, if you keep a safe distance, you can get by all right. Of course I don’t know where they blew Pride up last time. But I don’t see how it could have been on a main road.”