fter him like a dog, while Cicely
went in the house and slammed home the door behind her.

Not a word did either man utter on their tramp to the station; but there
they got at last, and the lights was burning and Inspector Chowne, whose
night duty it happed to be, was sitting nodding at his desk. And when Sam
stood before him and in a very disordered tone of voice brought the sad
news of how the Inspector's brother-in-law had been took red-handed coming
out of Trusham, a strange and startling thing followed. For, to the boy's
amazement, Inspector Chowne leapt from his seat with delight, and first he
shook Chawner's hand so hearty as need be and then he shook Sam's fist
likewise; and Chawner, the fox that he was, showed a lot of emotion and
his voice failed him and he shook Samuel by the hand also! In fact, 'twas
all so contrary to law and order, and reason also, that Samuel stared upon
the elder men and prayed the scene was a nightmare and that he'd wake up
in his bed any minute.

And then the Inspector spoke.

"Fear nothing, Borlase," he said. "You're saved alive, and you can take a
drink out of my whisky bottle in the cupboard if you've got a mind to it.
'Tis this way, my bold hero. My brother-in-law, Mr. Green here, have a
sense of fun as be hidden from the common likes of you and me. He's a
great naturalist, and he haunts the woods for beetles and toadstools and
the like; and I may tell you on his account that he's a person of
independent means, and would no more kill a pheasant, nor yet a
guinea-pig, that belonged to another man, than he'd fly over the moon. But
when he heard the Trusham keepers thought he was a poacher, such was his
love of a lark that he let 'em go on thinking so, and he's built up a
doubtful character much to my sorrow, though there ain't no foundation in
fact for it. But he laughs to see the scowling faces, though after
to-night he'll mend his ways in that respect I shouldn't wonder."

Samuel stared and looked at the gun in his hand and the pheasant in
Chawner's. It comed over him now that Inspector was going back on him and
meant to take Green's side.

"What about these?" he said.

"I'll come to them," continued Chowne. "Now you fell in love with my niece
and, as becomes a father, Mr. Green have got to size you up. And he took a
tolerable stern way so to do; but there again his sense of fun mastered
him. He told Sis you was still untried and a doubtful problem, though
nought against you,