“I’m not sure.  There is another gate, but——­”

“At last,” said a familiar voice.  “I wouldn’t have missed those stairs for anything.  Think of the fools who’ve trodden them before.”  The next moment Berry, followed by Mr. Lewis, made his appearance.  “Why, here are our little playmates.”  He advanced beaming.  “Don’t be shy any longer.  And what a storied retreat you have selected!” He indicated the building with a sweep of his arm.  “You know, originally this was a helter-skelter lighthouse, but Henry the Eighth lost his mat half-way down the chute, and had it closed down in revenge.  There was a great deal of feeling about it.  Especially on the part of the King.  He hunted from a litter for months.”

I addressed myself to Miss Deriot.

“Wonderfully well-informed, isn’t he?  Scratch the buffoon and you get the charlatan.”

Berry turned to Mr. Lewis.

“Much of my crowded life,” he said, “has been devoted to research.  I am, as it were, a crystal fount of knowledge.  I beg that you will bathe in me.”

Not knowing exactly what reply to make to this offer, Mr. Lewis laughed heartily, while Agatha, overcome with emotion, hurriedly turned away and stared over the roofs of Oxford, shaking with long spasms of laughter.

Stifling a desire to join her, I crossed to Mr. Lewis and engaged him in reasonable conversation, while Berry seized the opportunity of indicating to Agatha the main points of the city, accompanying his gesticulations with a series of inaudible remarks, which, to judge from their reception, concerned Mr. Lewis more nearly than Oxford, and were of a grotesque character.  I was just leading up to the question of fuel, when a cry from my brother-in-law interrupted me.

“My hag,” he announced, “is below.  With a notorious winebibber.  Where are the women police?”

The next moment he had slid an arm through Agatha’s and had begun to descend.  I followed with Mr. Lewis....

I pass over the meeting in the street below, which I was just in time to witness.  Berry’s swoop was so sudden that his prey appeared to realize that the game was up, and made no attempt to fly.  It was almost piteous.  An apprehension of certain embarrassment to come extinguished the instant impulse to shriek with laughter which was written plain upon their faces, and my sister gave one wild glance about her before turning to face the delinquent.

As I came up she addressed him.

“Berry, I appeal to you to take off that hat.”

“My tongue,” was the reply, “I mean my hands, are clean.  Bereft of my own headgear, I had no choice.  Some absent-minded priest is now scandalizing his parishioners by parading in a pearl-grey Homburg which is four sizes too big for him, while I—­would you have me go naked in the streets?”

Here the Vice-Chancellor passed, preceded by his Bedels with staves reversed, and Berry uncovered and fell upon his knees.  Surprised by the unwonted attention, the dignitary raised his mortar-board and bowed.