“‘No,’ I answered.  ’I think one of Piper’s men is getting them ready to take round.’

“The inspector grunted and moved away.  He walked into the front room, looked in the cupboard, glanced round and went downstairs.  On the first floor, he made a perfunctory inspection of the rooms, glancing in at my bedroom, and then went down to the ground floor.  From thence the two officers descended to the cellar, which they examined more thoroughly, even prodding the sawdust in the bin, and so up to the back yard.  Here, at the sight of the guys, the sergeant’s woeful countenance brightened somewhat.

“‘Ha!’ he exclaimed; ’Mrs. Gamway!  I saw a good deal of her when I was in the Westminster division.  I’ve often thought I’d like to—­and, by Jimini!  I will!’ He squared up fiercely at the helpless-looking effigy of the lady, and, with a vicious, round-arm punch, sent its unstable head flying across the yard.

“The blow and its effect seemed to rouse his destructive instincts, for he returned to the attack with such ferocity that in a few seconds he had reduced, not only the factitious Mrs. Gamway, but the Right Honorable Todd-Leeks also, to a heap of ruin.

“‘Stop that foolery, Smith,’ snarled the inspector; ’you’ll give the poor devil the trouble of building them up all over again.  Come along.’  He unlocked the gate and stood for a moment looking back at me.

“‘I suppose you’ve heard nothing in the night?’ he said.

“‘Not a sound,’ I answered, adding, ’I shan’t open the shop until the evening, and I shall probably go out for the day.  Would you like to have the key?’

“The inspector shook his head.  ’No, I don’t want the key.  I’ve seen all I want to see.  Good morning,’ and he stumped out, followed by his subordinate.

“I drew a deep breath as I re-locked the gate.  I was glad he had refused the key, though I had thought it prudent to make the offer.  Now I was at liberty to complete my arrangements at leisure.

“My first proceeding, after locking up the shop, was to rig up, with the green grocer’s stakes and Mrs. Kosminsky’s cord, a firm pair of standards to support the guys.  Then I took a hearty breakfast, after which I repaired to my bedroom with a hamper of straw, a bundle of small stakes and a quantity of odd rags.  The process of converting the specimens into quite convincing guys was not difficult.  Tying up the heads in large pieces of rag, I fastened the big masks to the fronts of the globular bundles and covered in the remainder with masses of oakum to form appropriate wigs.  Each figure was then clothed in the bulky garments borrowed from Mrs. Kosminsky’s stock and well stuffed with straw, portions of which I allowed to protrude at all the apertures.  A suitable stiffness was imparted to the limbs by pieces of stick poked up inside the clothing, and smaller sticks gave the correct, starfish-like spread to the gloved hands.  When they were finished, the illusion was perfect.  As the two effigies sat on the floor with their backs against the wall, stiff, staring, bloated and grotesquely horrible, not a soul would have suspected them.