“I begin to hope we are seeing the end of our anxieties already,” he said.  “If half the stories I have heard are true, when it comes to unravelling a mystery, there isn’t the equal in England of Sergeant Cuff!”

We all got excited and impatient as the time drew near for the appearance of this renowned and capable character.  Superintendent Seegrave, returning to us at his appointed time, and hearing that the Sergeant was expected, instantly shut himself up in a room, with pen, ink, and paper, to make notes of the Report which would be certainly expected from him.  I should have liked to have gone to the station myself, to fetch the Sergeant.  But my lady’s carriage and horses were not to be thought of, even for the celebrated Cuff; and the pony-chaise was required later for Mr. Godfrey.  He deeply regretted being obliged to leave his aunt at such an anxious time; and he kindly put off the hour of his departure till as late as the last train, for the purpose of hearing what the clever London police-officer thought of the case.  But on Friday night he must be in town, having a Ladies’ Charity, in difficulties, waiting to consult him on Saturday morning.

When the time came for the Sergeant’s arrival, I went down to the gate to look out for him.

A fly from the railway drove up as I reached the lodge; and out got a grizzled, elderly man, so miserably lean that he looked as if he had not got an ounce of flesh on his bones in any part of him.  He was dressed all in decent black, with a white cravat round his neck.  His face was as sharp as a hatchet, and the skin of it was as yellow and dry and withered as an autumn leaf.  His eyes, of a steely light grey, had a very disconcerting trick, when they encountered your eyes, of looking as if they expected something more from you than you were aware of yourself.  His walk was soft; his voice was melancholy; his long lanky fingers were hooked like claws.  He might have been a parson, or an undertaker—­or anything else you like, except what he really was.  A more complete opposite to Superintendent Seegrave than Sergeant Cuff, and a less comforting officer to look at, for a family in distress, I defy you to discover, search where you may.

“Is this Lady Verinder’s?” he asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“I am Sergeant Cuff.”

“This way, sir, if you please.”

On our road to the house, I mentioned my name and position in the family, to satisfy him that he might speak to me about the business on which my lady was to employ him.  Not a word did he say about the business, however, for all that.  He admired the grounds, and remarked that he felt the sea air very brisk and refreshing.  I privately wondered, on my side, how the celebrated Cuff had got his reputation.  We reached the house, in the temper of two strange dogs, coupled up together for the first time in their lives by the same chain.