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Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you

it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been

arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get

away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment

the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my

room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe.

I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's

house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton

Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there

every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective;

and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down

my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me

what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I

had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went

into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would

be best to do.