erever I have been in town."

"Now, sir, what did they want to kill you for?"

"Well, Gibbons, it happened in this way. My father, you know, was
murdered by a man who had a grudge against him, and who is both a
highwayman and a house breaker."

"They don't often go together," Ingleston said. "The highwaymen
generally look down upon the burglars and keep themselves to
themselves."

"I hew they do, Ingleston; but this fellow has been a convict, and is
not particular what he turns his hand to. The detectives have been
after him for a long time, but have failed, and I determined to take the
matter up myself, and ever since I have been up here I have been hunting
about in the worst quarters of the town. The people of Bow Street have
aided me in every way they could, and I suppose some of these men have
seen me go in or out of the place. Of course, when I am going into these
bad quarters, I put on a disguise and manage to get in with some of
these thieves, and so to try to get news of him through them. Three
weeks ago I decided to try Westminster. I was getting on uncommonly well
there, principally because I gave a tremendous thrashing to a fellow
they call Black Jim. He has been a prize fighter."

"I know him," Tring said; "it was the fellow that was kicked out for
selling a fight. He was not a bad man with his fists, either; but I
expect you astonished him, Mr. Thorndyke."

"Yes, I knocked him out of time in three rounds. Well, he has been a
bully down there, and everyone was very glad he was taken down. After
that I got to know several of the worst lot down there. They fancied
that I was one of themselves, and several of them made proposals to me
to join them, and, of course, I encouraged the idea in hopes of coming
upon the man that I was after. Then some fellow in the street recognized
me, I suppose, and denounced me to the rest as being one of the runners.
I suppose he told them this evening, before I went in.

"The place was a regular thieves' den, which, of course, was why I
went there. Naturally they were furious, especially those who had been
proposing to me to join them. Anyhow, they had evidently settled among
themselves that I was to be put out of the way, and directly I went in I
was attacked. I knocked down a few of them, but they jumped on my back,
and one of them managed to get a rope round my legs, and down I went
with three or four of them, and before I could get up again they had
tied and gagged me