and
whom he visits; another thing will be to find out the places where
receivers of stolen goods do their business, and to watch those with
whom highwaymen are suspected of having dealings. All this, you see,
will entail a lot of work, and require a very large amount of patience.
Of course, if nothing whatever comes of such inquiries, I shall have
to try quiet places in the suburbs; you must remember that this fellow
during his time as a convict must have had opportunities of getting
a vast amount of information likely to be useful to him, such as the
addresses of men holding positions of apparent respectability, and yet
in alliance with thieves. You may be sure that when he returned he took
every imaginable pains to obtain a safe place of concealment before
he began his work; my own opinion is that I am more likely to find him
living quietly in a suburban cottage than in a London slum."

Millicent was now thoroughly interested in the search. "It seems a great
business, Mark, but going into it as thoroughly as you are doing I feel
sure that you will succeed. I only wish that I could help you; but I
could not do that, could I?" she asked wistfully.

He saw that she was in earnest, and suppressed all semblance of a smile.

"I am afraid, dear, that you would be a much greater source of
embarrassment than of assistance to me," he said gravely. "This is
essentially not a woman's work. I believe that women are sometimes
employed in the detection of what we may call domestic crimes, but this
is a different matter altogether."

"I suppose so," she sighed; "but it will be very hard to be taking our
ease down at Weymouth while we know that you are, day after day, wearing
yourself out in tramping about making inquiries."

"It will be no more fatiguing than tramping through the stubble round
Crowswood after partridges, which I should probably be doing now if I
were down there. By the way, before you go we shall have to talk over
the question of shutting up the house. We had too much to think of to
go into that before we came away, and I suppose I shall have to run down
and arrange it all, if you have quite made up your mind that you don't
mean to return for a year or two."

"Decidedly our present idea is to have a few weeks at Weymouth, and then
when we feel braced up to come back here and look for a house. Where are
you likely to be, Mark?" Mrs. Cunningham asked.

"I shall consult with Dick Chetwynd; he knows the town thoro