"Thank 'ee, Tweddle; I don't mind if I do. And what do you keep in the other one, now?" "The other?" said the poor man. "Oh, odd things!" (He certainly had _one_ odd thing in it.) After the officer had chosen and mixed his spirits and water, he began: "Now, you know what's brought me here, don't you?" ("If he was sure, he wouldn't try to pump me," argued Leander. "I won't throw up just yet.") "I suppose it's the ring," he replied innocently. "You don't mean to say you've got it back for me, Mr. Inspector? Well, I _am_ glad." "I thought you set no particular value on the ring when I met you last?" said the other. "Why," said Leander, "I may have said so out of politeness, not wanting to trouble you; but, as you said it was the statue you were after chiefly, why, I don't mind admitting that I shall be thankful indeed to get that ring back. And so you've brought it, have you, sir?" He said this so naturally, having called in all his powers of dissimulation to help him in his extremity, that the detective was favourably impressed. He had already felt a suspicion that he had been sent here on a fool's errand, and no one could have looked less like a daring criminal, and the trusted confederate of still more daring ruffians, than did Leander at that moment. "Heard anything of Potter lately?" he asked, wishing to try the effect of a sudden _coup_. "I don't know the gentleman," said Leander, firmly; for, after all, he did not. "Now, take care. He's been seen to frequent this house. We know more than you think, young man." "Oh! if he bluffs, _I_ can bluff too," passed through Leander's mind. "Inspector Bilbow," he said, "I give you my sacred honour, I've never set eyes on him. He can't have been here, not with my knowledge. It's my belief you're trying to make out something against me. If you're a friend, Inspector, you'll tell me straight out." "That's not our way of doing business; and yet, hang it, I ought to know an honest man by this time! Tweddle, I'll drop the investigator, and speak as man to man. You've been reported to me (never mind by whom) as the receiver of the stolen Venus--a pal of this very Potter--that's what I've against you, my man!" "I know who told you that," said Leander; "it was that Count and his precious friend Braddle!" "Oh, you know them, do you? That's an odd guess for an innocent man, Tweddle!" "They found me out from inquiries at the gardens," said Leander; "and as for guessing, it's in this very paper. So it's me they've gone and implicated, have they? All right. I suppose they're men whose word you'd go by, wouldn't you, sir--truthful, reliable kind of parties, eh?"