gure.

He chuckled and went out of the flat into the street, turning southward.

He did not go far, however, before he stopped and looked back, and his
patience was rewarded by the sight of a figure crossing the road and
entering the building he had just left. The colonel gave him time, and
then retraced his steps. He took off his boots in the vestibule and went
upstairs quietly. He was half-way up when he heard the soft thud of his
own door closing, and grinned again. He gave the intruder time to get
inside before he too inserted his key, and turning it without a sound,
came into the darkened hall. There was a light in his room, and he heard
the sound of a drawer being pulled open. Then he gripped the handle,
and, flinging the door open, stepped in. The man who was looking through
the desk sprang up in affright.

As Boundary had suspected, it was his former butler, the man who had
deserted him the day before without a word. He was a big, heavy-jowled
man of powerful build, and the momentary look of fright melted to a leer
at the sight of the colonel's face.

"Well, Tom," said Boundary pleasantly, "come back for the pickings?"

"Something like that, guv'nor," said the other. "You don't blame me?"

"I've been pretty good to you, Tom," said the colonel.

"Ugh! I don't know that I've anything to thank you for."

Here was a man who a month before would have cringed at the colonel's
upraised finger!

"Oh, don't you, Tom?" said Boundary softly. "Come, come, that's not very
grateful."

"What have I got to be grateful to you for?" demanded the man.

"Grateful that you're alive, Tom," said the colonel, and the servant's
face went hard.

"None of that, colonel," he snarled; "you can't afford to talk 'fresh'
with me. I know a great deal more about you than you suppose. You think
I've got no brains."

"I know you have brains, Tom," said the colonel, "but you can't use
'em."

"Can't I, eh? I haven't been looking after you for four or five years
and doing your dirty work, colonel, without picking up a little
intelligence--and a little information! You'd look comic if they put me
in the witness box!"

He was gaining courage at the very mildness of the man of whom he once
stood in terror.

"So you've come for the pickings?" said the colonel, ignoring his
threat. "Well, help yourself."

He went to the sideboard, poured himself out a little whisky and sat
down by the window to watch the man search. Tom pulled open a