"You can make your mind quite easy," returned the other. "You'll find Miss Seymour at the cottage, and I have no doubt she will be delighted to see you. You're exactly the sort of primitive young savage that appeals to women." Joe stepped forward pleadingly. "Let me give 'im one, doctor--only just one. That'll learn 'im to call you names." "No," said Colin. "Leave him alone. He'll have all he deserves by the time we've finished with him." He walked toward the door, and, with one reluctant glance at the smiling and half-prostrate figure on the sofa, Joe followed him out into the hall. * * * * * * * * * Two men muffled up in long coats, who were waiting just inside the entrance, stepped forward at once as the car came to a standstill again at the main gate-way of the Yard. From, under the peaked cap of the former the sharp eyes of Inspector Marsden travelled swiftly and approvingly over its two occupants. "Well, you don't waste much time, doctor," he observed. "I will say that for you." "I'd have been here a lot sooner if it hadn't been for the usual cursed jam in Piccadilly," returned Colin viciously. As he spoke he leaned over and swung open the back door of the car. "Just a minute," said the Inspector quietly. "Before we start I'd like to hear a few more details about this interview of yours with Medwin. We don't want to go chasing down into Essex unless----" "I'll give you the facts," interrupted Colin. "If you don't think they're good enough to act on you can leave it to Joe and me." In a few blunt words he described the scene which had taken place in the study, the two detectives standing silently beside the car, and Joe nodding his head at intervals as though to confirm the truth of the story. "I can't swear that he hasn't invented the whole thing," finished Colin, "but, all the same, I'm pretty certain there's something in it. Whatever else Medwin may be, he isn't a fool. He knows perfectly well I meant what I said, and in my opinion he's had the sense to chuck up the sponge in order to save his own skin." "The guv'nor's right, mister," broke in Joe earnestly. "'E's a lyin' swine, this bloke, but 'e didn't fancy the idea of 'avin' 'is tongue torn out, you could see that by 'is faice." Marsden laughed grimly. "I daresay you could!" He turned to Colin. "I'm shocked and surprised that you should have taken the law into your own hands in this way, but, between ourselves, I believe you've done the trick." He jerked his head toward the back of the car. "Jump in, sergeant. We can make use of the doctor's information even if we don't approve of his methods." As he spoke he seated himself alongside of Colin, while the sergeant, a heavily built individual with a chin like the toe of a boot, clambered up obediently into the tonneau. Directly he was on board Colin thrust in his clutch, and the next moment they were spinning up the broad roadway in the direction of Waterloo Bridge.