It isn't often that duty calls me to a little Eden like this.

The air is like balm to-day; and the river--oh, the river is a sheer delight." Narkom rang for a fresh pot of tea and a further supply of buttered toast, and, when these were served, Cleek sat down and joined him.
"I dare say," said the superintendent, opening fire at once, "that you wonder what in the world induced me to bring you out here to meet me, my dear fellow, instead of following the usual course and calling at Clarges Street?
Well, the fact is, Cleek, that the gentleman with whom I am now about to put you in touch lives in this vicinity, and is so placed that he cannot get away without running the risk of having the step he is taking discovered." "Humph! He is closely spied upon, then ?" commented Cleek.

"The trouble arises from someone or something in his own household ?" "No--in his father's.

The 'trouble,' so far as I can gather, seems to emanate from his stepmother, a young and very beautiful woman, who was born on the island of Java, where the father of our client met and married her some two years ago, whither he had gone to probe into the truth of the amazing statement that a runic stone had been unearthed in that part of the globe." "Ah, then you need not tell me the gentleman's name, Mr.Narkom," interposed Cleek.

"I remember perfectly well the stir which that ridiculous and unfounded statement created at the time.