He was a clever rascal, and chose one of those scraps of lost England that people know nothing about.

Nobody could say off-hand that there was not a particular house dropped somewhere about the heath.

But as a fact, there isn't." Basil's face during this sensible speech had been growing darker and darker with a sort of desperate sagacity.

He was cornered almost for the first time since I had known him; and to tell the truth I rather wondered at the almost childish obstinacy which kept him so close to his original prejudice in favour of the wildly questionable lieutenant.

At length he said: "You really searched the common?
And the address was really not known in the district--by the way, what was the address ?" The constable selected one of his slips of paper and consulted it, but before he could speak Rupert Grant, who was leaning in the window in a perfect posture of the quiet and triumphant detective, struck in with the sharp and suave voice he loved so much to use.
"Why, I can tell you that, Basil," he said graciously as he idly plucked leaves from a plant in the window.