our 'art. I shouldn't wonder
now if I couldn't make a pretty good guess without telling at what
you're after. You've bin a catchin' of it hot, and you want to make a
clean bolt of it. I ain't very far off, now, am I?"

"No," said Paul; for something in the man's manner inspired confidence.
"I do want to make a bolt of it. I've been most abominably treated."

"Well, look here, I ain't got no right to interfere; and if you're
caught, I look to you not to bring my name in. I don't want to get into
trouble up at Crichton House and lose good customers, you see. But I
like the looks of you, and you've always dealt 'ere pretty regular. I
don't mind if I give you a lift. Just see here. You want to get off to
London, don't you? What for is your business, not mine. Well, there's a
train, express, stops at only one station on the way, in at 5.50. It's
twenty minnits to six now. If you take that road just oppersite, it'll
bring you out at the end of the Station Road; you can do it easy in ten
minnits and have time to spare. So cut away, and good luck to you?"

"I'm vastly obliged to you," said Paul, and he meant it. It was a new
experience to find anyone offering him assistance. He left the close
little shop, crossed the road, and started off in the direction
indicated to him at a brisk trot.

His steps rang out cheerfully on the path ironbound with frost. He was
almost happy again under the exhilarating glow of unusual exercise and
the excitement of escape and regained freedom.

He ran on, past a series of villa residences enclosed in varnished
palings and adorned with that mediaeval abundance of turrets, balconies,
and cheap stained-glass, which is accepted nowadays as a guarantee of
the tenant's culture, and a satisfactory substitute for effective
drainage. After the villas came a church, and a few yards farther on the
road turned with a sharp curve into the main thoroughfare leading to the
station.

He was so near it that he could hear the shrill engine whistles, and the
banging of trucks on the railway sidings echoed sharply from the
neighbouring houses. He was saved, in sight of haven at last!

Full of delight at the thought, he put on a still greater pace, and
turning the corner without looking, ran into a little party of three,
which was coming in the opposite direction.

Fate's vein of irony was by no means worked out yet. As he was
recovering from the collision, and preparing to offer or accept an
apology, as the