Even his opening words, bizarre and cheerfully impertinent, smacked of "comic relief." "I figure prominently in this particular 'piece,'" snapped Grant.

"May I ask your name, sir ?" "A wise precaution with suspicious characters," rejoined the other, smiling.

Grant was suddenly reminded of a Japanese grinning at a joke, but he bent over a card which the stranger had whisked out of a waistcoat pocket.

He read: MR.

CHARLES F.FUENEAUX, _Criminal Investigation Department_, NEW SCOTLAND YARD, S.W.
He could not control himself.