and brought out, with a gasp--"a gentleman?"

Chandler looked at him, surprised. "No," he said deliberately.
"I've made up my mind that's quite a wrong tack, though I knows that
some of our fellows--big pots, too--are quite sure that the fellow
what gave the girl the sovereign is the man we're looking for. You
see, Mr. Bunting, if that's the fact--well, it stands to reason the
fellow's an escaped lunatic; and if he's an escaped lunatic he's got
a keeper, and they'd be raising a hue and cry after him; now,
wouldn't they?"

"You don't think," went on Bunting, lowering his voice, "that he
could be just staying somewhere, lodging like?"

"D'you mean that The Avenger may be a toff, staying in some
West-end hotel, Mr. Bunting? Well, things almost as funny as that
'ud be have come to pass." He smiled as if the notion was a funny
one.

"Yes, something o' that sort," muttered Bunting.

"Well, if your idea's correct, Mr. Bunting--"

"I never said 'twas my idea," said Bunting, all in a hurry.

"Well, if that idea's correct then, 'twill make our task more
difficult than ever. Why, 'twould be looking for a needle in a
field of hay, Mr. Bunting! But there! I don't think it's
anything quite so unlikely as that--not myself I don't." He
hesitated. "There's some of us"--he lowered his voice--"that
hopes he'll betake himself off--The Avenger, I mean--to another
big city, to Manchester or to Edinburgh. There'd be plenty of
work for him to do there," and Chandler chuckled at his own grim
joke.

And then, to both men's secret relief, for Bunting was now
mortally afraid of this discussion concerning The Avenger and
his doings, they heard Mrs. Bunting's key in the lock.

Daisy blushed rosy-red with pleasure when she saw that young
Chandler was still there. She had feared that when they got home
he would be gone, the more so that Ellen, just as if she was doing
it on purpose, had lingered aggravatingly long over each small
purchase.

"Here's Joe come to ask if he can take Daisy out for a walk,"
blurted out Bunting.

"My mother says as how she'd like you to come to tea, over at
Richmond," said Chandler awkwardly, "I just come in to see whether
we could fix it up, Miss Daisy." And Daisy looked imploringly at
her stepmother.

"D'you mean now--this minute?" asked Mrs. Bunting tartly.

"No, o' course not"--Bunting broke in hastily. "How you do go on,
Ellen!"

"What day did your mother mention would be convenient to her?"
asked