"Just in time!" he exclaimed. "He is in one of the forward
compartments."
He relocked the door, and, seating himself, proceeded to fill his pipe.
"And now," said I, as the train moved out of the station, "perhaps you
will explain this little comedy."
"With pleasure," he replied, "if it needs any explanation. But you can
hardly have forgotten Mr. James's flattering remarks in his report of
the Greek Street incident, clearly giving the impression that the
mysterious document was in my possession. When I read that, I knew I
must look out for some attempt to recover it, though I hardly expected
such promptness. Still, when Mr. Barton called without credentials or
appointment, I viewed him with some suspicion. That suspicion deepened
when he wanted us both to come. It deepened further when I found an
impossible quantity of arsenic in his sample, and it gave place to
certainty when, having allowed him to select the trains by which we were
to travel, I went up to the laboratory and examined the time-table; for
I then found that the last train for London left Rexford ten minutes
after we were due to arrive.
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