OF SAMMY

XLVII. MR. DOWNING ON THE SCENT

XLVIII. THE SLEUTH-HOUND

XLIX. A CHECK

L. THE DESTROYER OF EVIDENCE

LI. MAINLY ABOUT BOOTS

LII. ON THE TRAIL AGAIN

LIII. THE KETTLE METHOD

LIV. ADAIR HAS A WORD WITH MIKE

LV. CLEARING THE AIR

LVI. IN WHICH PEACE IS DECLARED

LVII. MR. DOWNING MOVES

LVIII. THE ARTIST CLAIMS HIS WORK

LIX. SEDLEIGH _v._ WRYKYN

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

BY T. M. R. WHITWELL

"ARE YOU THE M. JACKSON, THEN, WHO HAD AN AVERAGE OF FIFTY-ONE POINT
NOUGHT THREE LAST YEAR?"

THE DARK WATERS WERE LASHED INTO A MAELSTROM

"DON'T _LAUGH_, YOU GRINNING APE"

"DO--YOU--SEE, YOU FRIGHTFUL KID?"

"WHAT'S ALL THIS ABOUT JIMMY WYATT?"

MIKE AND THE BALL ARRIVED ALMOST SIMULTANEOUSLY

"WHAT THE DICKENS ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

PSMITH SEIZED AND EMPTIED JELLICOE'S JUG OVER SPILLER

"WHY DID YOU SAY YOU DIDN'T PLAY CRICKET?" HE ASKED

"WHO--" HE SHOUTED, "WHO HAS DONE THIS?"

"DID--YOU--PUT--THAT--BOOT--THERE, SMITH?"

MIKE DROPPED THE SOOT-COVERED OBJECT IN THE FENDER

CHAPTER I

MIKE

It was a morning in the middle of April, and the Jackson family were
consequently breakfasting in comparative silence. The cricket season
had not begun, and except during the cricket season they were in the
habit of devoting their powerful minds at breakfast almost exclusively
to the task of victualling against the labours of the day. In May,
June, July, and August the silence was broken. The three grown-up
Jacksons played regularly in first-class cricket, and there was always
keen competition among their brothers and sisters for the copy of the
_Sportsman_ which was to be found on the hall table with the
letters. Whoever got it usually gloated over it in silence till urged
wrathfully by the multitude to let them know what had happened; when
it would appear that Joe had notched his seventh century, or that
Reggie had been run out when he was just getting set, or, as sometimes
occurred, that that ass Frank had dropped Fry or Hayward in the slips
before he had scored, with the result that the spared expert had made
a couple of hundred and was still going strong.

In such a case the criticisms of the family circle, particularly of
the smaller Jackson sisters, were so breezy and unrestrained that Mrs.
Jackson generally felt it necessary to apply the closure. Indeed,
Marjory Jackson, aged fourteen, had on three several occasions b