elegraph message tickled his sense of humour immensely.
"And what did you do then?"

"Drove dahn the road a little just ter keep me 'and in, and then, when I
'eard you call out ter the lydy, and knew you wuz in danger, sir--why, I
slipped in the clutch and come rocketing toward yer as farst as I
could."

"Oho! And you were nearer than the lady had arranged, then?"

Dollops drew a long breath before replying; and his voice was solemn.

"That little distance of a quarter of a mile might 'ave done for yer
entire--an' I weren't tykin' no risks," he replied heavily. "An' if
anyfink was to 'appen to _you_, sir--well, it's me fer the river 'fore
you kin wink an eyelash. Dollops ain't a-stayin' 'ere wiv you on the
uvver side of the sky, sir, an' don't you myke no mistake abaht _that_.
Where you goes, I goes, too--if it's to 'eaven or 'ell. An' I'm thinkin'
I knows the w'y the ayngels'll tyke _you_."

"Well, they're not taking me yet, dear lad, so don't worry your ginger
head about it!" returned Cleek, with a little gulp of emotion for so
staunch an adherent as this wisp of Cockneydom who stood before him.
"But it's friends like you and women like Miss Lorne that keep a man
straight and strong and true, and don't let him turn down the wrong path
instead of the right. Come, now, there's still more work to be done. Mr.
Narkom will be waiting, and I told him midnight under the big gate. Slip
up the driveway and see if you can see him while I go round by Rhea's
gate and see how the coast lies."

Dollops disappeared forthwith, and it was but a moment or two later that
he returned in company with the Superintendent looking a little
round-eyed and scared until he saw Cleek standing in the shadow of the
big gate, and going up to him flung an arm about his shoulders.

"You've frightened me into forty fits and out of 'em again," he cried
with a little sigh of relief, "for I'd made up my mind that something
had happened, and was on the way down here to see if you'd kept your
appointment, and if you hadn't--well, every man-jack of 'em at the house
would have made an all-night search for you, till we'd found you,
Cleek."

"And now that you have, you bundle of fussydom, you see I am still all
of a piece and, as Dollops says, as large as life and twice as natural,"
returned Cleek with a smile. "Gad, but there's not much moon about now,
is there? And it will be dark work climbing----"

"But you intend to do this mad thing, Cleek?"