‘It certainly looked to me,’ said Sir Charles, ‘as if I had got hold of the right end of the stick. I found the office, which appeared to occupy the whole of the top floor of the building. The name of the society was painted on the outer door, and underneath was the legend, “Hours, Ten to Four.” It was then eleven in the morning. I knocked and rang, and could get no answer at all, and I could hear no sound of any activity within. I came back at three in the afternoon with the same result. I then sent a letter, saying that I required a copy of the current number of the paper, and wished to know what amount I should forward for the purpose; and to make it quite certain I enclosed a stamped and addressed envelope. Well, I got a reply, with an illegible signature. It said that no retail business was done at the office, but that I could apply for the copy through the usual channels. I still thought that I was on the right line, and gave the address to my newsagent and set him to work. The answer he got was that the current issue was out of print, all copies having been allocated. So there I stuck.’ ‘You came rather near to it, though,’ said the chairman. ‘Suppose we shorten matters. Does any member claim to have won this competition? Our friend Jimmy has been looking rather pleased with himself all the evening.’ ‘Have I?’ said Jimmy. ‘Well, I don’t mind admitting that I’ve jolly good reason to be pleased with myself just now, quite apart from the competition. I’ve won that too, as it happens. But I don’t take much credit for it. Of course, you could say that it was due to the improved habits and all that, and I suppose that was so, more or less, but the fact remains that I wasn’t even thinking about the thing at the time, and if I hadn’t forgotten my cigarette-case it would never have happened. So if you don’t call it luck, what are you to call it?’ ‘Mr Feldane,’ said the chairman, with great gravity, ‘you are beginning your story at the wrong end—that is, with the criticism of it. I must ask you to tell us simply what happened from the very commencement, and as coherently as possible.’ ‘Certainly,’ said Jimmy indulgently, ‘any old way that you happen to fancy. Well, to start with, though as a matter of fact it had been going on for more than a week before, they asked me to dine with them at the house on Wimbledon Common. So naturally I jumped at it. I won’t say I had always been addicted to the scenery of Wimbledon, but there were certain private reasons.’ ‘Private reasons for dining at Wimbledon?’ said Hesseltine reflectively. ‘I think I know her name, don’t I?’