,
but the crops are spoiled." He added:--"Oy saw the Man, out of the top
window, going away."

Uncle Mo let the millennium stand over. "Which man, old Peppermint
Drops?" said he, improvising a name to express an aroma he had detected
in his nephew, when he stooped to make sure he was getting his last
words right.

"Whoy, the Man," Dave continued, in an undertone that might have related
to the Man with the Iron Mask, "the Man me and Micky we sore in Hoyde
Park, and said he was a-going to rip Micky up, and Micky he said he
should call the Police-Orficers, and the gentleman said...."

"That'll do prime!" said Uncle Mo. For Dave's torrent of identification
was superfluous. "I would have laid a guinea I knew his game," added he
to himself. Then to Gwen, inside the house with Dolly on her
knee:--"You'll excuse me, miss, my lady, these young customers they do
insert theirselves--it's none so easy to find a way round 'em, as I say
to M'riar.... M'riar gone out?" For it was a surprise to find the
children alone entertaining company--and such company!

"There, Dolly, you hear?" said Gwen. "You're not to insert yourself
between me and your uncle. Suppose we sit quiet for five minutes!" Dolly
subsided. "How do you do, Mr. Wardle!... No, Aunt Maria isn't here, and
I'm afraid that man coming worried her. Dave's man.... Oh yes--I saw
him. He came out as I came in, three minutes ago. What _is_ the man?
Didn't I hear Dave telling how Micky said he should give him to the
Police? I wish Micky had, and the Police had found out who he's
murdered. Because he's murdered somebody, that man! I saw it in his
eyes."

"He's a bad character," said Mo. "If he don't get locked up, it won't be
any fault of mine. On'y that'll be after I've squared a little account I
have against him--private affair of my own. If you'll excuse me half a
minute, I'll go up and see what's got M'riar." But Uncle Mo was stopped
at the stair-foot by the reappearance of Aunt M'riar at the stair-top.
As they met halfway up, both paused, and Gwen heard what it was easy to
guess was Aunt M'riar's tale of "the Man's" visit, and Uncle Mo's
indignation. They must have conversed thus in earnest undertones for
full five minutes, before Aunt M'riar said audibly:--"Now we mustn't
keep the lady waiting no longer, Mo"; and both returned, making profuse
apologies. The interval of their absence had been successfully and
profitably filled in by an account of how Mrs. Picture had been