rcely
needs to be recorded. It is sufficient to say that he had the time
of his life that night; that he kept Cleek busy every minute for
the next twenty-four hours wringing out flannels in hot water and
dosing him with homely remedies, and that when he finally came
through the siege was as limp as a wet newspaper and as feeble as a
good many dry ones.

"What you need to pull yourself together is a change, you reckless
young ostrich--a week's roughing it in the open country by field and
stream, and as many miles as possible from so much as the odour of
a pastry cook's shop," said Cleek, patting him gently upon the
shoulder. "A nice sort of assistant you are--keeping a man out
of his bed for twenty-four hours, with his heart in his mouth and
his hair on end, you young beggar. Now, now, now! None of your
blubbing! Sit tight while I run down and make some gruel for you.
After that I'll nip out and 'phone through to the Yard and tell
Mr. Narkom to have somebody look up a caravan that can be hired, and
we'll be off for a week's 'gypsying' in Yorkshire, old chap."

He did--coming back later with a piece of surprising news. For
it just so happened that the idea of a week's holiday-making, a
week's rambling about the green lanes, the broad moors, and through
the wild gorges of the West Riding, and living the simple life
in a caravan, appealed to Mr. Maverick Narkom as being the most
desirable thing in the world at that moment, and he made haste to
ask Cleek's permission to share the holiday with him. As nothing
could have been more to his great ally's liking, the matter was
settled forthwith. A caravan was hired by telegram to Sheffield, and
at ten the next morning the little party turned its back upon
London and fared forth to the pleasant country lands, the charm of
laughing waters, and the magic that hides in trees.

For five days they led an absolutely idyllic life; loafing in green
wildernesses and sleeping in the shadow of whispering woods; and
this getting back to nature proved as much of a tonic to the two men
as to the boy himself--refreshing both mind and body, putting red
blood into their veins, and breathing the breath of God into their
nostrils.

Having amply provisioned the caravan before starting, they went no
nearer to any human habitation than they were obliged to do in
passing from one district to another; and one day was so exact a
pattern of the next that its history might have stood for them all:
up