Yielding to the drowsy calm, Mrs. Pett was just nodding into a pleasant nap, when the door opened and Lord Wisbeach came in.

Lord Wisbeach had been doing some rapid thinking.  Rapid thought is one of the essentials in the composition of men who are known as Gentleman Jack to the boys and whose livelihood is won only by a series of arduous struggles against the forces of Society and the machinations of Potter and his gang.  Condensed into capsule form, his lordship’s meditations during the minutes after he had left Jimmy in the dining-room amounted to the realisation that the best mode of defence is attack.  It is your man who knows how to play the bold game on occasion who wins.  A duller schemer than Lord Wisbeach might have been content to be inactive after such a conversation as had just taken place between himself and Jimmy.  His lordship, giving the matter the concentrated attention of his trained mind, had hit on a better plan, and he had come to the drawing-room now to put it into effect.

His entrance shattered the peaceful atmosphere.  Aida, who had been gurgling apoplectically, sprang snarling from the basket, and made for the intruder open-mouthed.  Her shrill barking rang through the room.

Lord Wisbeach hated little dogs.  He hated and feared them.  Many men of action have these idiosyncrasies.  He got behind a chair and said “There, there.”  Aida, whose outburst was mere sound and fury and who had no intention whatever of coming to blows, continued the demonstration from a safe distance, till Mrs. Pett, swooping down, picked her up and held her in her lap, where she consented to remain, growling subdued defiance.  Lord Wisbeach came out from behind his chair and sat down warily.

“Can I have a word with you, Mrs. Pett?”

“Certainly, Lord Wisbeach.”

His lordship looked meaningly at Ogden.

“In private, you know.”

He then looked meaningly at Mrs. Pett.

“Ogden darling,” said Mrs. Pett, “I think you had better go to your room and undress and get into bed.  A little nice sleep might do you all the good in the world.”

With surprising docility, the boy rose.

“All right,” he said.

“Poor Oggie is not at all well to-day,” said Mrs. Pett, when he was gone.  “He is very subject to these attacks.  What do you want to tell me, Lord Wisbeach?”

His lordship drew his chair a little closer.

“Mrs. Pett, you remember what I told you yesterday?”

“Of course.”

“Might I ask what you know of this man who has come here calling himself Jimmy Crocker?”

Mrs. Pett started.  She remembered that she had used almost that very expression to Ann.  Her suspicions, which had been lulled by the prompt recognition of the visitor by Skinner and Lord Wisbeach, returned.  It is one of the effects of a successful hunch that it breeds other hunches.  She had been right about Jerry Mitchell; was she to be proved right about the self-styled Jimmy Crocker?