thy carpet manufacturer was sitting at his ease. On a tiny table drawn up to the fire stood a silver coffee service an

orrespondent through carefully. Then he read half a report of a divorce case, then-he read the parag

s wife since their eventful departure from Adderbury Cottage was not calculated to draw a like explosion of mirth from the elderly g

e reason for which he would have found it difficult to account he walked on tiptoe. Then he took the paper, and standing under the clus

tched it crumble away into ashes, continuing to

ice and explain to them fully the part he had taken in the affair. But then it was hardly creditable for him to associate himself in so scandalous a m

osed increase of salary for the hard-worked police official. He grew cold and hot by turns, too, as he thought of the handle he was giving to

arehouse a year since. The insurance company involved had been introduced to

tion again. The company had been hard hit and had refused to renew his policy,

n. There was a man who had invented a new shuttle (a machine from which Jasper had made thousands), who was now living in pover

with Povey would cause much dirty water to be stirred up. Better far, he told himself, to leave the country until the

ing's Cross-Population 486-Ah! that ought to suit in the mean time. He moved cautiously to the door. For a moment he stood in an attitude of listening, then

ork of the metropolis where it is so easy to lie hidden. He wrote a letter to his wife, who was spendin

aiting his orders, his master scanned hi

k a bunch of keys, and, selecting one, opened a drawer in his bureau. From it he took a small fortune in notes and gold, and going to his bedroom he changed h

r car, and in a wonderfully short space of time pulled up at the Warwick Arms Hotel

ent in London, he read the tidings that his identity had been established, and that an officer who had bee

brain for the name of some country where the laws of extradition were lax. The Argentine rose to his mind, but he had no idea of going so far from England unless it w

ight be new laws now. Then the fate that has the moving of th

ic, but the good common sense of Stone-wall Jarman was in a state of complete diso

all sure would be the case. In any event he said he would be ruined beyond redemption, and his reputation would become the legitimate sport of his many enemies, political and social, in Kidderminster. The fact would remain that he, Jasper Jarman, had stood in the dock beside a man like Povey, w

of Kyser's death? People would never believe the evidence of the bad drainage if Povey liked to deny it-as he doubtless would. Edward Povey to Jasper's mind was a guilty

hat he had done this, but he had told himself that it was then or never, and the hue and cry had not really begun. The manager had met him, and there was no suspici

and side-whiskers, and his iron-grey hair he had attempted to dye black, in which endeavour he had been successful-in patches-and to hide this piebald appearance he had taken to a larger brimmed soft hat. He was buttoned up to the chin in his heavy ulster, and a muffler covered his mouth. He looked

igh of relief as the train slid out of the stat

ping it out of the window as the train crawled through the Severn Tunne

ch the Paddington passengers had given him, he resolved upon a further modification in his attire, and the man who for the next few days lounged abo

n a tramp steamer that was about to leave, and without loss of time

*

nd Paris (which latter city had been decided upon as the first stopping-place in their journey), his unfortunate relative by marriage was

with Jasper Jarman, who, poor fellow, could not cross the