he rest round me arm. S' long! an' don't yer forget it. No
late nights. No carryin's on with the choir." And Bindle winked
knowingly at Smith and the boy.

Bindle's popularity among his brother special constables was
instantaneous and complete. They were for the most part sent out in
pairs. "'untin' in couples," Bindle called it. The man who got Bindle
as a companion considered himself lucky.

If Bindle saw a pair of lovers saying good-night, he would go up to
them gravely and demand what they were doing, and warn them as to their
proper course of conduct.

"There ain't goin' to be no kissin' on my beat," he would remark, "only
wot I does meself. Why ain't you in the army, young feller?"

He never lost an opportunity of indulging his sense of the ludicrous,
and he soon became known to many of those whose property it was his
duty to protect. From servant-girls he came in for many dainties, and
it was not long before he learnt that the solitary special gets more
attention from the other sex than the one who "'unts in couples." As a
consequence Bindle became an adept at losing his fellow-constable. "I
can lose a special quicker than most chaps can lose a flea," he
remarked once to Mrs. Bindle.

One night, about half-past nine, when on duty alone on Putney Hill,
Bindle saw a man slip down one of the turnings on the left-hand side,
as if desirous of avoiding observation. A moment after he heard a soft
whistle. Grasping his truncheon in his right hand, Bindle slid into
the shadow of the high wall surrounding a large house. A few minutes
later he heard another whistle.

"'Ullo," he muttered, "shouldn't be surprised if there wasn't somethink
on. Now, Joe B., for the V.C. or a pauper's grave."

Creeping stealthily along under the shadow of the wall, he came close
up to the man without being observed. Just as he gave vent to the
third whistle Bindle caught him by the arm.

"Now then, young feller, wot's all this about? I 'eard you. 'Oly
Angels!" Bindle exclaimed in astonishment, "where did you spring from,
sir?"

It was Dick Little.

"I was just a-goin' to run you in for a burglar."

"Well, you wouldn't have been far wrong," replied Little. "I'm bent on
theft."

"Right-oh," said Bindle. "I'm with yer, special or no special. What
are yer stealin', if it ain't a rude question?"

"A girl," Little replied.

Bindle whistled significantly.

In the course of the next five minutes Dick Little expl