ury. This will only make matters worse, and I
dread the scandal that will follow, and to hear my sad story in a court
of law as a justification for his violence. Oblige me, then, by leaving
Hillsborough for a time, as I have done."

On receipt of this, Coventry packed up his portmanteau directly, and,
leaving Lally behind to watch the town, and see whether this was a ruse,
he went directly to the town whence Grace's letter was dated, and to the
very hotel.

This she had foreseen and intended.

He found she had been there, and had left for a neighboring
watering-place: he followed her thither, and there she withdrew the
clew; she left word she was gone to Stirling; but doubled on him,
and soon put hundreds of miles between them. He remained in Scotland,
hunting her.

Thus she played the gray plover with him she hated, and kept the beloved
hands from crime.

When Little found that Coventry had left Hillsborough, he pretended to
himself that he was glad of it. "My darling is right," said he. "I will
obey her, and do nothing contrary to law. I will throw him into prison,
that is all." With these moderated views, he called upon his friend
Ransome, whom of course he had, as yet, carefully avoided, to ask his
aid in collecting the materials for an indictment. He felt sure that
Coventry had earned penal servitude, if the facts could only be put in
evidence. He found Ransome in low spirits, and that excellent public
servant being informed what he was wanted for, said dryly, "Well, but
this will require some ability: don't you think your friend Silly Billy
would be more likely to do it effectually than John Ransome?"

"Why, Ransome, are you mad?"

"No, I merely do myself justice. Silly Billy smelt that faulty
grindstone; and I can't smell a rat a yard from my nose, it seems. You
shall judge for yourself. There have been several burglaries in this
town of late, and planned by a master. This put me on my mettle, and
I have done all I could, with my small force, and even pryed about in
person, night after night, and that is not exactly my business, but I
felt it my duty. Well, sir, two nights ago, no more, I had the luck to
come round a corner right upon a job: Alderman Dick's house, full of
valuables, and the windows well guarded; but one of his cellars is only
covered with a heavy wooden shutter, bolted within. I found this open,
and a board wedged in, to keep it ajar: down I went on my knees, saw a
light inside, and he