wed into my arm. "It's his
dog," he whispered me, "or what's left. The poor brute held the
door, they say . . . sprang at their throats right and left . . .
till someone brained him and they threw his carcass into the
fire. . . . Drop it, Foe--that's a good fellow!"

Jack stayed himself, stared at us dully, and put down the
handkerchief after dusting the bench with it.

"Is that you, you fellows?" he asked, with a smile playing about his
mouth and twisting it. "Good of you, Roddy--though almost too late
for the fun! Jimmy, too? . . . They've made a bit of a mess here,
eh? . . . Ah, and there's Mr. Farrell! Will somebody introduce Mr.
Farrell? . . . Good-morning, sir! We'll--we'll talk this little
matter over--you and I--later."

BOOK II.

THE CHASE.

NIGHT THE EIGHTH.

VENDETTA.

"My dear Roddy,--Don't come around: and for God's sake don't send
Jimmy. The word is 'No sympathy, by request.' You will
understand.

"I shall call on you at 9 o'clock on Tuesday. Have breakfast
ready, for I shall be hungry as a hunter.

"Don't fash yourself, either, with fears that I am 'unhinged' by
this business. I am just off to Paddington--thence for the
Thames--shan't say where: but it's a backwater, where I propose
to think things out. I shall have thought them out, quite
definitely, by Tuesday.

"I believe you keep a few bottles of the audit ale. Tell Jephson
to open one for a stirrup-cup. You can invite Jimmy.--
Yours truly,
J.F.

"P.S.--I don't know, and can't guess, how you came to tumble in
so promptly on the heels of that riot. But you have always been
a cherub sitting up aloft and keeping watch over--
Poor Jack.

"P.P.S.--This by Special Messenger. . . . Forgive my breaking
away and leaving you all so impolitely. Nothing would do, just
then, but to escape and be alone.--
Until Tuesday."

A boy-messenger brought this missive at 5.30. I read it over in a
hurry, and took cheer: read it over a second time, sentence by
sentence, and liked it less. It left no doubt, anyhow, that to
search for Jack on the reaches of the river would be idle, as to find
him would be mean. So there was nothing to do but wait.

That week-end, as it hap