ally
nothing to get in the least excited about. Old Baird has at last
spotted that I'm not quite the common cracksman I would have him think
me. So he's been doing his best to run me to my burrow."

"And you call that nothing!"

"It would be something if he had succeeded; but he has still to do
that. I admit, however, that he made me sit up for the time being. It
all comes of going on the job so far from home. There was the old
brute with the whole thing in his morning paper. He KNEW it must have
been done by some fellow who could pass himself off for a gentleman,
and I saw his eyebrows go up the moment I told him I was the man, with
the same old twang that you could cut with a paper-knife. I did my
best to get out of it--swore I had a pal who was a real swell--but I
saw very plainly that I had given myself away. He gave up haggling.
He paid my price as though he enjoyed doing it. But I FELT him
following me when I made tracks; though, of course, I didn't turn round
to see."

"Why not?"

"My dear Bunny, it's the very worst thing you can do. As long as you
look unsuspecting they'll keep their distance, and so long as they keep
their distance you stand a chance. Once show that you know you're
being followed, and it's flight or fight for all you're worth. I never
even looked round; and mind you never do in the same hole. I just
hurried up to Blackfriars and booked for High Street, Kensington, at
the top of my voice; and as the train was leaving Sloane Square out I
hopped, and up all those stairs like a lamplighter, and round to the
studio by the back streets. Well, to be on the safe side, I lay low
there all the afternoon, hearing nothing in the least suspicious, and
only wishing I had a window to look through instead of that beastly
skylight. However, the coast seemed clear enough, and thus far it was
my mere idea that he would follow me; there was nothing to show he had.
So at last I marched out in my proper rig--almost straight into old
Baird's arms!"

"What on earth did you do?"

"Walked past him as though I had never set eyes on him in my life, and
didn't then; took a hansom in the King's Road, and drove like the deuce
to Clapham Junction; rushed on to the nearest platform, without a
ticket, jumped into the first train I saw, got out at Twickenham,
walked full tilt back to Richmond, took the District to Charing Cross,
and here I am! Ready for a tub and a change, and the best dinner the
club ca