“Do you really mean it, Mr. James?” he enquired cautiously.

“Mean what?”

“You have really forgotten that you were engaged in a fracas last night at the Six Hundred Club?”

Jimmy sat up with a jerk, staring at this omniscient man.  Then the movement having caused a renewal of the operations of the red-hot corkscrew, he fell back again with a groan.

“Was I?  How on earth did you know?  Why should you know all about it when I can’t remember a thing?  It was my fault, not yours.”

“There is quite a long report of it in to-day’s Daily Sun, Mr. James.”

“A report?  In the Sun?”

“Half a column, Mr. James.  Would you like me to fetch the paper?  I have it in my pantry.”

“I should say so.  Trot a quick heat back with it.  This wants looking into.”

Bayliss retired, to return immediately with the paper.  Jimmy took it, gazed at it, and handed it back.

“I overestimated my powers.  It can’t be done.  Have you any important duties at the moment, Bayliss?”

“No, sir.”

“Perhaps you wouldn’t mind reading me the bright little excerpt, then?”

“Certainly, sir.”

“It will be good practice for you.  I am convinced I am going to be a confirmed invalid for the rest of my life, and it will be part of your job to sit at my bedside and read to me.  By the way, does the paper say who the party of the second part was?  Who was the citizen with whom I went to the mat?”

“Lord Percy Whipple, Mr. James.”

“Lord who?”

“Lord Percy Whipple.”

“Never heard of him.  Carry on, Bayliss.”

Jimmy composed himself to listen, yawning.

CHAPTER V

THE MORNING AFTER

Bayliss took a spectacle-case from the recesses of his costume, opened it, took out a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, dived into the jungle again, came out with a handkerchief, polished the spectacles, put them on his nose, closed the case, restored it to its original position, replaced the handkerchief, and took up the paper.

“Why the hesitation, Bayliss?  Why the coyness?” enquired Jimmy, lying with closed eyes.  “Begin!”

“I was adjusting my glasses, sir.”

“All set now?”

“Yes, sir.  Shall I read the headlines first?”

“Read everything.”

The butler cleared his throat.

“Good Heavens, Bayliss,” moaned Jimmy, starting, “don’t gargle. 
Have a heart!  Go on!”

Bayliss began to read.

FRACAS IN FASHIONABLE NIGHT-CLUB

SPRIGS OF NOBILITY BRAWL

Jimmy opened his eyes, interested.

“Am I a sprig of nobility?”

“It is what the paper says, sir.”

“We live and learn.  Carry on.”

The butler started to clear his throat, but checked himself.

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