“There is one thing not impossible, my dear fellow.”

“What is that?”

“That you may have fallen asleep, and dreamt the whole thing.”

“Could I dream of a branch line that I had never heard of?  Could I dream of a hundred and one business details that had no kind of interest for me?  Could I dream of the seventy-five thousand pounds?”

“Perhaps you might have seen or heard some vague account of the affair while you were abroad.  It might have made no impression upon you at the time, and might have come back to you in your dreams,—­recalled, perhaps, by the mere names of the stations on the line.”

“What about the fire in the chimney of the blue room,—­should I have heard of that during my journey?”

“Well, no; I admit there is a difficulty about that point.”

“And what about the cigar-case?”

“Ay, by Jove! there is the cigar-case.  That is a stubborn fact.  Well, it’s a mysterious affair, and it will need a better detective than myself, I fancy, to clear it up.  I suppose we may as well go home.”

III.

A week had not gone by when I received a letter from the Secretary of the East Anglian Railway Company, requesting the favor of my attendance at a special board meeting, not then many days distant.  No reasons were alleged, and no apologies offered, for this demand upon my time; but they had heard, it was clear, of my inquiries anent the missing director, and had a mind to put me through some sort of official examination upon the subject.  Being still a guest at Dumbleton Hall, I had to go up to London for the purpose, and Jonathan Jelf accompanied me.  I found the direction of the Great East Anglian line represented by a party of some twelve or fourteen gentlemen seated in solemn conclave round a huge green-baize table, in a gloomy board-room, adjoining the London terminus.

Being courteously received by the chairman (who at once began by saying that certain statements of mine respecting Mr. John Dwerrihouse had come to the knowledge of the direction, and that they in consequence desired to confer with me on those points), we were placed at the table, and the inquiry proceeded in due form.

I was first asked if I knew Mr. John Dwerrihouse, how long I had been acquainted with him, and whether I could identify him at sight.  I was then asked when I had seen him last.  To which I replied, “On the fourth of this present month, December, eighteen hundred and fifty-six.”  Then came the inquiry of where I had seen him on that fourth day of December; to which I replied that I met him in a first-class compartment of the 4.15 down express; that he got in just as the train was leaving the London terminus, and that he alighted at Blackwater station.  The chairman then inquired whether I had held any communication with my fellow-traveller; whereupon I related, as nearly as I could remember it, the whole bulk and substance of Mr. John Dwerrihouse’s diffuse information respecting the new branch line.