He spent the whole of the day at Scotland Yard in the laboratory, making experiments to demonstrate the value of a new finger-print method. He did not see Talham that night, nor the next day either, for the matter of that, but on the third day following the discovery of the paper, and the fourth after the abduction of the girl, Talham came to see him in a state of great excitement. “Soo is in London,” he said briefly, and seemed pleased with himself that he could report information to the encyclopædia detective. Tillizinni nodded. “I know that,” he said. “What is more,” said Talham, “I’ve been followed about for the last two days by a couple of men. I tried to lure them into a dark court last night to beat them up.” “I’m very glad you didn’t,” said Tillizinni drily, “because those were eminently respectable members of the Metropolitan Police, whom I have put on to protect you from whatever harm might be coming to you.” Talham looked a little crestfallen. He had come prepared to accept a little praise from the other for his acumen and his powers of perception. “But how do you know that Soo is in London?” asked Tillizinni. “Because I saw him,” said the calm Talham, and secured his sensation. Tillizinni raised his eyebrows. “Saw him and did not arrest him?” “It was rather difficult,” explained Talham. “I was on the platform of a tube station at Piccadilly Circus just as the train was moving out. In a rear carriage as it went past me, gathering speed at every second, I saw a man whom I’ll swear was Soo, with a perfectly fitting beard. I know him, moreover, by the scar above his left eye. Just as he came abreast of me he raised his eyes, and then I was sure. I couldn’t stop the train--which reminds me,” he said portentously, “that I must report the station-master and several of the employées on the Underground Railway for marked insolence.” Tillizinni gathered that Talham had made himself objectionable, and sympathised with the station officials. “I couldn’t telephone through to the next station, and if I had, I probably should not have got through in time,” he said, “and if I got through----” “Anyway, you didn’t telephone at all,” said Tillizinni with a smile, “and he alighted at the next station, and disappeared.” Talham nodded. “I have known he’s been in London for some days,” said Tillizinni. “As a matter of fact, there is nothing very clever in finding that out, because I received a note which was unmistakably from him. Scotland Yard can do no more than they are doing, and unless he leaves in an aeroplane, and we have made provision for that contingency, I don’t see how he is to escape from England.” Tillizinni had applied for leave, he told the other, and was prepared to leave for China the following week. If he had expected Talham to be excited or elated or in any way pleasantly surprised, he was doomed to disappointment.