He had already dismissed an ingenious account of himself as a belated wanderer, detained by stress of weather, as certain to be contradicted by Julia herself, and decided Instead on risking all upon his supposed uncle’s saintly reputation.

“How came she to invite you, sir?” demanded Sir Justin.

“As my uncle’s nephew, merely.”

Sir Justin stared at him in silence, while he brought the full force of his capacious mind to bear upon the situation.

“Your name, you say, is Bunker?” he observed at length.

“Count Bunker,” corrected that nobleman.

“Ah!  Doubtless, then, you are the same gentleman who has been residing with Lord Tulliwuddle?”

“I am unaware of a duplicate.”

“And the uncle you allude to——?”

By a wave of his hand the Count referred him to the portrait upon the wall.  Sir Justin now stared at it.

“Bunker—­Count Bunker,” he repeated in a musing tone, and then turned to the present holder of that dignity with a look in his eye which the adventurer disliked exceedingly.

“I will confer with you later,” he observed.  “Mackenzie, remove my portmanteau.”

In a voice inaudible to the Count he gave another order, which was followed by Mackenzie also removing the Count’s clothes from their chair.

“I say, Mackenzie!” expostulated Bunker, now beginning to feel seriously uneasy; but heedless of his protest the butler hastened with them from the room.

Then, with a grim smile and a surprising alacrity of movement, Sir Justin changed the key into the outside of the lock, passed through the door, and shut and locked it behind him.

“The devil!” ejaculated Count Bunker.

Here was a pretty predicament!  And the most ominous feature about it appeared to him to be the deliberation with which his captor had acted.  It seemed that he had got himself into a worse scrape than he could estimate.

He wasted no time in examining his prison with an eye to the possibility of an escape, but it became very quickly evident that he was securely trapped.  From the windows he could not see even a water-pipe within hail, and the door was unburstably ponderous.  Besides, a gentleman attired either in pajamas or evening dress will naturally shrink from flight across country at nine o’clock in the morning.  It seemed to the Count that he was as well in bed as anywhere else, and upon this opinion he acted.

In about an hour’s time the door was cautiously unlocked, and a tray, containing some breakfast, laid upon the floor; but at the same time he was permitted to see that a cordon of grooms and keepers guarded against his flight.  He showed a wonderful appetite, all circumstances considered, smoked a couple of cigars, and at last decided upon getting up and donning his evening clothes.  Thereafter nothing occurred, beyond the arrival of a luncheon tray, till the afternoon was well advanced; by which time even his good spirits had become a trifle damped, and his apprehensions considerably increased.