t to wait for the Bishop o' Blanford and a lady as
was comin' down next day, and the Bishop was to give the sailin'
orders."

"Humph! What more?"

"This mornin' I seed 'em lookin' over a lot of flags on the deck of the
yacht, and one of 'em was Spanish."

"So you came all the way up here to tell me this cock-and-bull story!"

"Not till I'd squared the crew."

"Squared the crew?"

"I let on to 'em as how they'd been shipped under false orders to carry
two Spanish spies out of the country, an' how we was on to the fact, and
if they'd stay by us they'd not be held responsible; and I promised 'em
ten shillin's apiece and give 'em all the drink they wanted, and they're
ours to a man."

"And that's where you've wasted good money and good liquor. I tell you
what you say is impossible. If the Bishop had had any idea of a move
like that, I'd have got wind of it. Besides, his old cat of a sister
would never let him leave Blanford again without her."

"Hist!" said the tramp, pointing across the lawn. "Look there, what did
I say? My eyesight ain't what it was, from breakin' stones up to Sing
Sing, and I can't see no faces at this distance, but there's somethin'
sneakin' along there, in bishop's togs."

Marchmont followed the direction he indicated, and saw two figures
stealing round the corner of the palace, carrying hand-bags and showing
every sign of watchfulness and suspicion. Having ascertained that the
lawn was clear, they slipped rapidly across it, and, putting themselves
in the protecting shade of a clump of bushes, turned into the high-road
and disappeared. It had needed no second glance to identify them as his
Lordship and Miss Arminster.

"By Jove!" gasped the journalist. "It is true, then! This will be a
scoop of scoops! Come, we've got to run for it. We must take the same
train, and they mustn't see us."

Some one else had witnessed the departure, in spite of all the
precautions of the fugitives, and that person was Miss Matilda, who,
from the vantage of an upper window, caught a glimpse of them just as
they disappeared through the gate. Unwilling at first to believe her
senses, she rushed to her brother's room and then to Miss Arminster's.
Alas! in each apartment the traces of hasty packing and missing
hand-luggage gave damning evidence of the fact. She rushed downstairs,
bursting with her dreadful intelligence. In the hall she met Cecil,
delightedly waving a telegram in his hand.

"Hurrah! Aunt Matilda