ithin ten yards of you.

Mr. Parham-Carter, of course, knew this perfectly well, and had,
finally, communicated the fact to the other two quite early in the
afternoon. An elaborate system of watches, therefore, had been arranged,
by which one of the three had been on guard continuously since three
o'clock. It was Jack who had had the privilege (if he had but known it)
of observing Mr. Partington himself returning home to his family for
Christmas, and it was Dick, who came on guard about five, who had seen
the Major--or, rather, what was to him merely a shabby and excited
man--leave and then return to the "Queen's Arms" during his hour's
watch.

* * * * *

After the amazing and shocking news, however, of the accident to Lord
Talgarth and Archie, the precautions had been doubled. It was the
clergyman who had first bought an evening paper soon after five o'clock,
and within five minutes the other two knew it also.

It is of no good to try to describe the effect it had on their minds,
beyond saying that it made all three of them absolutely resolute that
Frank should by no possible means escape them. The full dramatic
situation of it all they scarcely appreciated, though it soaked more and
more into them gradually as they waited--two of them in the Men's Club
just round the corner, and the third, shivering and stamping, under the
arch. (An unemployed man, known to the clergyman, had been set as an
additional sentry on the steps of the Men's Club, whose duty it would
be, the moment the signal was given from the arch that Frank was
coming, to call the other two instantly from inside. Further, the
clergyman--as has been related--had been round three times since four
o'clock to Turner Road, and had taken Jimmie into his pay.)

The situation was really rather startling, even to the imperturbable
Dick. This pleasant young man, to whom he had begun to feel very
strangely tender during the last month or two, now tramping London
streets (or driving a van), in his miserable old clothes described to
him by the clergyman, or working at the jam factory, was actually no one
else at this moment but the new Lord Talgarth--with all that that
implied. Merefield was his, the big house in Berkeley Square was his;
the moor in Scotland.... It was an entire reversal of the whole thing:
it was as a change of trumps in whist: everything had altered its
value....

Well, he had plenty of time, both before he came