ayers and crying Lord,
Lord, but never doing the things which He said, who were known by their
words to be unbelievers and infidels, unfaithful to the Master they
pretended to serve, their lives being passed in deliberate and
systematic disregard of His teachings and Commandments. It was not
necessary to call in the evidence of science, or to refer to the
supposed inconsistencies, impossibilities, contradictions and
absurdities contained in the Bible, in order to prove there was no
truth in the Christian religion. All that was necessary was to look at
the conduct of the individuals who were its votaries.

Chapter 5

The Clock-case

Jack Linden lived in a small cottage in Windley. He had occupied this
house ever since his marriage, over thirty years ago.

His home and garden were his hobby: he was always doing something;
painting, whitewashing, papering and so forth. The result was that
although the house itself was not of much account he had managed to get
it into very good order, and as a result it was very clean and
comfortable.

Another result of his industry was that--seeing the improved appearance
of the place--the landlord had on two occasions raised the rent. When
Linden first took the house the rent was six shillings a week. Five
years after, it was raised to seven shillings, and after the lapse of
another five years it had been increased to eight shillings.

During the thirty years of his tenancy he had paid altogether nearly
six hundred pounds in rent, more than double the amount of the present
value of the house. Jack did not complain of this--in fact he was very
well satisfied. He often said that Mr Sweater was a very good
landlord, because on several occasions when, being out of work, he had
been a few weeks behind with his rent the agent acting for the
benevolent Mr Sweater had allowed Linden to pay off the arrears by
instalments. As old Jack was in the habit of remarking, many a
landlord would have sold up their furniture and turned them into the
street.

As the reader is already aware, Linden's household consisted of his
wife, his two grandchildren and his daughter-in-law, the window and
children of his youngest son, a reservist, who died while serving in
the South African War. This man had been a plasterer, and just before
the war he was working for Rushton & Co.

They had just finished their tea when Owen knocked at their front door.
The young woman went to see who was there.