an to deny it, then?" the reporter asked.

"Assuredly, for it is not true," Mannering answered. "Pray don't let me
detain you any longer!"

He turned on his heel and walked away, but the reporter kept pace with
him.

"You will pardon me, but this is a very serious affair, Mr. Mannering,"
he said. "Serious for both of us. Do you mind discussing it with me?"

"Not in the least," Mannering answered, "so long as you permit me to
continue my way homewards."

"I will walk with you, sir, if you don't mind," the reporter said. "It is
a very serious matter indeed, this! My people are as keen as possible to
make use of it. If they do, and it turns out a true story, you, of
course, will never sit for Leeds. And if on the other hand it is false,
I shall get the sack!"

"Well, it is false," Mannering said.

"Some parts of it, perhaps," the young man answered, smoothly. "Not all,
Mr. Mannering."

"Old men are garrulous," Mannering remarked. "I expect you will find that
your friend has been letting his tongue run away with him."

"He has committed his statements to paper," Ronaldson remarked.

"And signed them?"

"He is willing to do so," the reporter answered. "I was to have fetched
them away to-night."

"You may be a little late," Mannering remarked.

The _double entente_ in his tone did not escape Ronaldson's notice. He
stopped short on the pavement.

"So you have bought him," he remarked.

Mannering glanced at him superciliously.

"Will you pardon me," he said, "if I remark that this conversation has no
particular interest for me? Don't let me bring you any further out of
your way."

Ronaldson took off his hat.

"Very good, sir," he remarked. "I will wish you good-night!"

Mannering pursued his way homeward with the briefest of farewells. The
young reporter retraced his steps. Arrived at Parkins's lodgings he
mounted the stairs, and found the room empty. He returned and interviewed
the landlord. From him he only learned that Parkins had departed with one
of two gentlemen who had come to see him that evening, and that they had
paid his rent for him. The reporter was obliged to depart with no more
satisfactory information. But next morning, before nine o'clock, he was
waiting to see Mannering, and would not be denied. He was accompanied,
too, by a person of no less importance than the editor of the _Yorkshire
Herald_ himself.

Mannering kept them waiting an hour, and then received them coolly.

"I am glad