You needn't
fear, my friend; I will be a match for him. As I told you down in
Devonshire, there's going to be a battle royal between us. He looks upon
me as a kind of fool, who can be easily duped. But I shan't be.'

It was some days after this before I heard anything of Edgecumbe again.
As I think I have mentioned, I was on sick leave at the time, and after
leaving him I went to see some friends in Oxford. While there I got a
letter from him, saying that he had been taken ill almost immediately on
his return to duty, and that a fortnight's leave had been granted to him.
He asked me when I should be returning to London, as he would like me to
accompany him on his peregrinations through the City. I curtailed my
visit to Oxford, so as to fall in with his plans, and found that he had
taken up his quarters at a Y.M.C.A. Hut, which had been erected
especially for the use of officers.

He was looking somewhat pale and hollow-eyed, as I entered a comfortably
fitted-up lounge in the building.

'What's the matter with you?' I asked.

'Oh, nothing much. I had a sort of relapse after I got back to work, and
the M.O. declared me unfit for duty. Evidently Colonel McClure wrote to
him about me. He seems to think I was poisoned.'

'Did your M.O. tell you that?'

'Yes, and in his opinion the poison was not quite eradicated from my
system. Funny, isn't it? Anyhow, they wouldn't let me work, and here I
am. What we poor soldiers would do without the Y.M.C.A., Heaven only
knows! Anyhow, it shows that Christianity is not quite dead in the
country, for if ever there was a Christian body, the Y.M.C.A. is one.'

'You can hardly call it a body,' I replied; 'it is an organization
representing the Christian spirit of the country.'

'All right, old man; call it what you like. Anyhow, I am jolly thankful
to its promoters. What I should have done but for the Y.M.C.A., Heaven
knows, I don't!'

'I know what you are going to do,' I replied.

'What?'

'You are coming with me to my hotel as a guest.'

'You are awfully good, old man, but I am afraid I can't. You see, this
illness of mine has given me my opportunity, and I am going to take it.'

'Opportunity for what?'

'For seeing London, for studying its life. I mean to go everywhere, and
I don't want to interfere with your liberty in any way.'

'Good,' I replied, 'I'll go with you; and as we shall be staying at the
same hotel, it will be more convenient to both of us.'