“Mr. Emmons,” said Lee, sitting down without being asked, “I think you witnessed my triumphant return to the bosom of my family last evening. I find myself in something of a hole on account of a foolish trick. For reasons which we need not go into, I passed myself off as Mr. Lee’s son, on the strength of a likeness. Unhappily I had no idea of just what sort of a rascal he appears to have been.” Nature or art had made it easy for Emmons’s face to express nothing. “And you are not Bob Lee?” he said. “Lee died the day before I left South America.” “Why have you come to tell _me_ this?” “I found myself rather in need of a dispassionate outsider, and Miss Lee mentioned your name.” “Well,” said Emmons, “you’ve come to the wrong person. I am not a dispassionate outsider. I have known the Lees for some time, and have watched Miss Lee, and I know some of the difficulties she has had. There have been times, sir, when your father would not give her a penny for months together--and why? Because all spare cash went down to you. It was a dog’s life for any woman, but she would not give it up, until there was some one to take her place. She and I have waited one whole year, hoping we could lay our hands on you, and now that you have at last walked into the trap of your own accord we are not going to let you go.” “I see,” said Vickers, “that like her all you want is some one to take the job of looking after the old man. I had no idea it would be to your interest, too, to disbelieve me.” “To disbelieve you!” cried Emmons. “Do you expect any one in their senses to believe you? Does a man not know his own son, or a girl not recognize the cousin she was brought up with? You acknowledge that you come from the same place, you are the same age, the same height, you walk straight to his house, and it is not until you find that your being Lee means that you have got to work for your living that you begin to run in this story about your being some one else. No, sir. You will do as I tell you, or you will be arrested as you go out of here. Miss Lee telephoned me what your last game was, and I sent round to police headquarters for a detective. You can take your choice.”