versation with him. Presently they
returned to Bindle. The inspector said with official coldness:

"There seems to have been a mistake, and her ladyship offers you a
sovereign in compensation."

"Oh, she does, does she?" remarked Bindle. "Well, jest tell 'er
bloomin' ladysillyship wi' Joseph Bindle's compliments that there's
nothin' doin'. A quid might 'ave been enough for a ordinary slop, but
I'm a special sort o' slop and, like a special train, I 'as to be paid
for. She can stump up a fiver or----"

The inspector looked nonplussed. He was not quite sure what authority
he had over a special constable. A further whispered conversation
followed, and eventually Lady Knob-Kerrick left the room and a few
minutes later returned with five one-pound notes, which she handed to
the inspector without a word, and he in turn passed them on to Bindle.

"Well," Bindle remarked, "I must be off. 'Ope you'll find your
daughter, mum; and as for you, Dicky-Bird and Calves, we'll probably
meet again. S'long." And he departed.

CHAPTER XIX

THE SCARLET HORSE COTERIE

One of the indirect results of Millie's romance was the foregathering
each Friday night under the hospitable roof of the Scarlet Horse of a
number of congenial and convivial spirits. It was Bindle's practice to
spend the two hours during which Millie and Charlie Dixon were at the
cinema in drinking a pint of beer at the Scarlet Horse, and exchanging
ideas with anyone who showed himself conversationally inclined.

In time Bindle's friends and acquaintance got to know of this practice,
and it became their custom to drop into "the 'Orse to 'ear ole Joe tell
the tale."

Ginger would come over from Chiswick, Huggles from West Kensington,
Wilkes from Hammersmith, and one man regularly made the journey from
Tottenham Court Road.

At first they had met in the public bar, but later, through the
diplomacy of Bindle, who had explained to the proprietor that "yer gets
more thirsty in a little place than wot yer does in a big 'un, 'cause
it's 'otter," they had been granted the use of a small room.

Sometimes the proprietor himself would join the company.

One September evening, having handed over Millie to her cavalier with
strict injunctions to be outside the Cinema at ten sharp, Bindle turned
his own steps towards the Scarlet Horse. As he entered he was greeted
with that cordiality to which he had become accustomed. Calling for a
pint of beer, he seated h