“Half-past four,” said Calton, pausing for a moment at the door and looking at his watch.  “I’m afraid it’s rather late to catch Moreland to-day; however, I’ll see what Thinton and Tarbit know,” and he went out.

The rest sat waiting his return, and chatted about the curious end of the hansom cab mystery, when, in about ten minutes, Calton rushed in hurriedly and closed the door after him quickly.

“Fate is playing into our hands,” he said, as soon as he recovered his breath.  “Moreland called on Thinton and Tarbit, as Kilsip surmised, and as neither of them was in, he said he would call again before five o’clock.  I told the clerk to bring him up to me at once, so he may be here at any moment.”

“That is, if he’s fool enough to come,” observed Chinston.

“Oh, he’ll come,” said the detective, confidently, rattling a pair of handcuffs together.  “He is so satisfied that he has made things safe that he’ll walk right into the trap.”

It was getting a little dusk, and the four men were greatly excited, though they concealed it under an assumed nonchalance.

“What a situation for a drama,” said Brian.

“Only,” said Chinston, quietly, “it is as realistic as in the old days of the Coliseum, where the actor who played Orpheus was torn to pieces by bears at the end of the play.”

“His last appearance on any stage, I suppose,” said Calton, a little cruelly, it must be confessed.

Meanwhile, Kilsip remained seated in his chair, humming an operatic air and chinking the handcuffs together, by way of accompaniment.  He felt intensely pleased with himself, the more so, as he saw that by this capture he would be ranked far above Gorby.  “And what would Gorby say?—­Gorby, who had laughed at all his ideas as foolish, and who had been quite wrong from the first.  If only—­”

“Hush!” said Calton, holding up his finger, as steps were heard echoing on the flags outside.  “Here he is, I believe.”

Kilsip arose from his chair, and, stealing softly to the window, looked cautiously out.  Then he turned round to those inside and, nodding his head, slipped the handcuffs into his pocket.  Just as he did so, there was a knock at the door, and, in response to Calton’s invitation to enter, Thinton and Tarbit’s clerk came in with Roger Moreland.  The latter faltered a little on the threshold, when he saw Calton was not alone, and seemed half inclined to retreat.  But, evidently, thinking there was no danger of his secret being discovered, he pulled himself together, and advanced into the room in an easy and confident manner.

“This is the gentleman who wants to know about the cheque, sir,” said Thinton and Tarbit’s clerk to Calton.

“Oh, indeed,” answered Calton, quietly.  “I am glad to see him; you can go.”

The clerk bowed and went out, closing the door after him.  Moreland took his seat directly in front of Calton, and with his back to the door.  Kilsip, seeing this, strolled across the room in a nonchalant manner, while Calton engaged Moreland in conversation, and quietly turned the key.