"Oh, Mr. Wilson! Mr. Wilson!" says he. "Hi beg of you, don't!" says he;
and he come running after me.

"What's the matter with you?" I ast him.

"Hi beg your pardon, sir," says he; "but Hi'm most deeply concerned in
hall of this," he says.

"What do you mean, you shrimp?" says I. "Have you been mixed up in
anything here?"

"Hit was the mide across the way, sir--across the wall, that is to say.
Well, perhaps Hi've been too attentive to their Hemmy, sir, from the
hupper-story window; but she was that pretty and so fond of me! Hi 'ope
Hi did no wrong, sir; but you see, sometimes when all was quite still,
sir, Hi did flash a light across from my window on 'ers, and we did 'ave
a 'appy time, sir, come midnight--quite silent, sir, and quite far
apart; quite respectable, Hi assure you, sir--nothing more--all above
the wall; for otherwise Hi couldn't 'ave seen 'er at all."

"Was you busy with that sort of thing about one or two o'clock this
morning?" I ast him. "I want to know what you done--what happened?"

"A great deal 'appened, sir. Quite without plan, I saw a man appear at
the window of this 'ouse across the wall; 'e was right by the window and
looking across. At first Hi thought 'e was looking at my window and Hi
stepped back, not wishing to compromise a lady like Hemmy--that being
the 'ousemide's name across the wall, sir."

"What was this man doing?"

"Hi cawn't 'ardly tell, sir. 'E looked and 'e made some motions. There
seemed a light on 'is window too; in fact, all between the two 'ouses
seemed quite bright at the time, what with 'im and what with me. A short
time afterwards a car went out."

I turned on down toward the gate.

"Oh, Hi beg of you," says he, "to say nothing over there. Knowing as Hi
do that both you and Mr. Wright are very violent men, and caring as Hi
do for Hemmy, the 'ousemide, sir, Hi feel most uneasy--Hi do, indeed."

"Well, if that's the way you feel, William," says I, "you go on back in
the house."

"You don't mean any violence, Hi 'ope, sir?"

"I don't know yet what I mean; but go on back in."

He turns around just about in time, for now I seen two or three people
coming in at our front gate. I didn't know any of them. They was young
fellows. One of them ast me if I knew anything about the alleged
elopement. Then I seen word had got out somehow--like enough from our
Annette or their Emmy, and these was maybe newspaper reporters come up
to see about it.

"I haven't heard of