ipper was in a state of horror; all idea of concealment gone out
of him. "I couldn't help it," he gasped. "I couldn't get out to him; I
was locked up in the mill. Don't shoot me."

"I'll spare you on one condition," decided Pike. "Disclose the whole of
this from first to last, and then we may part friends. But try to palm
off one lie upon me, and I'll riddle you through. To begin with: what
brought you locked up in the mill?"

It was a wicked tale of a wicked young jail-bird, as Mr. Pike (probably
the worse jail-bird by far of the two) phrased it. Master Ripper had
purposely caused himself to be locked in the mill, his object being to
supply himself with as much corn as he could carry about him for the
benefit of his rabbits and pigeons and other live stock at home. He had
done it twice before, he avowed, in dread of the pistol, and had got away
safe through the square hole in the passage at the foot of the back
staircase, whence he had dropped to the ground. To his consternation on
this occasion, however, he had found the door at the foot of the stairs
bolted, as it never had been before, and he could not get to the passage.
So he was a prisoner all the afternoon, and had exercised his legs
between the store-room and kitchen, both of which were open to him.

If ever a man showed virtuous indignation at a sinner's confession, Mr.
Pike showed it now. "That's how you were about in the stubble-field
setting your traps, you young villain! I saw the coroner look at you. And
now about Lord Hartledon. What did you see?"

Master Ripper rubbed the perspiration from his face as he went on with
his tale. Pike listened with all the ears he possessed and said not a
word, beyond sundry rough exclamations, until the tale was done.

"You awful young dog! You saw all that from the kitchen-window, and never
tried to get out of it!"

"I _couldn't_ get out of it," pleaded the boy. "It's got a wire-net
before it, and I couldn't break that."

"You are strong enough to break it ten times over," retorted Pike.

"But then master would ha' known I'd been in the mill!" cried the boy, a
gleam of cunning in his eyes.

"Ugh," grunted Pike. "And you saw exactly what you've told me?"

"I saw it and heard the cries."

"Did he see you?"

"No; I was afeard to show myself. When master come home, the first thing
he did was t' unlock that there staircase door, and I got out without his
seeing me--"

"Where did you hide the grain you were load