unmoved Baltic, 'I'll wring your neck, sir, if you dare to hint at
such a thing.' 'I am merely stating facts, Sir Harry--facts,' he added
pointedly, 'which I wish you to know.'

'For what purpose.'

'That you may assist me.'

'To hunt down the bishop, I suppose,' said Sir Harry, quivering with
rage.

'No, sir, to save the bishop from Mr Cargrim.'

'Then you do not believe that the bishop is guilty.'

'Sir,' said Baltic, with dignity, 'in London and in Beorminster I have
collected certain evidence which, on the face of it, incriminates the
bishop. But since knowing Dr Pendle I have been observant of his looks
and demeanour, and--after much thought--I have come to the conclusion
that he is innocent of this crime which Mr Cargrim lays to his charge.
It is because of this belief that I tell you my mind and seek your
assistance. We must work together, sir, and discover the real criminal
so as to baffle Mr Cargrim.'

'Cargrim, Cargrim,' repeated Brace, angrily, 'he is a bad lot.'

'That is what I say, Sir Harry. He is one who spreads a snare, and I
wish him to be taken in it himself.'

'Yet Cargrim is your employer, and pays you,' sneered Sir Harry.

'You are wrong,' replied Baltic, quietly. 'I do not take payment for my
work.'

'How do you live then? You were not independent when I knew you.'

'That is true, Sir Harry, but when I arrived in England I found that my
father was dead, and had left me sufficient to live upon. Therefore I
take no fee for my work, but labour to punish the wicked, for religion's
sake.'

Brace muttered something about the heat, and wiped his forehead as he
resumed his seat. The peculiar views held by Baltic perplexed him
greatly, and he could not reconcile the man's desire to capture
criminals with his belief in a religion, the keynote of which is, 'God
is love.' Evidently Baltic wished to convert sinners by playing on their
fears rather than by appealing to their religious feelings, although it
was certainly true that those rascals with whom he had to deal probably
had no elements of belief whatsoever in their seared minds.

But be this as it may, Baltic's mission was both novel and strange, and
might in some degree prove successful from its very originality.
Torquemada burned bodies to save souls, but this man exposed vices, so
that those who committed them, being banned by the law, and made
outcasts from civilisation, should find no friend but the Deity. Harry
was not clever enou