man whose antique dress coat and none too spotless linen certainly did
not advertise their owner's prosperity. Yet this man with the stubbly
moustache and the bald head could write his cheque for seven figures,
being Mr. Thomas Crotin, of the firm of Crotin and Principle, whose
swollen mills occupy a respectable acreage in Huddersfield and Dewsbury.

"You're Colonel Boundary, are you?" he said admiringly, and for about
the seventh time since the meal started.

The colonel nodded with a good-humoured twinkle in his eye.

"Well, fancy that!" said Mr. Crotin. "I'll have something to talk about
when I go back to Yorkshire. It is lucky I met your friend, Captain
Crewe, at our club in Huddersfield."

There was something more than luck in that meeting, as the colonel well
knew.

"I read about the trial and all," said the Yorkshireman; "I must say it
looked very black against you, colonel."

The colonel smiled again and lifted a bottle towards the other.

"Nay, nay!" said the spinner. "I'll have nowt more. I've got as much as
I can carry, and I know when I've had enough."

The colonel replaced the bottle by his side.

"So you read of the trial, did you?"

"I did and all," said the other, "and I said to my missus: 'Yon's a
clever fellow, I'd like to meet him.'"

"You have an admiration for the criminal classes, eh?" said the colonel
good-humouredly.

"Well, I'm not saying you're a criminal," said the other, taking his
host literally, "but being a J.P. and on the bench of magistrates, I
naturally take an interest in these cases. You never know what you can
learn."

"And what did your lady wife say?" asked Boundary.

The Yorkshireman smiled broadly.

"Well, she doesn't take any interest in these things. She's a proper
London lady, my wife. She was in a high position when I married."

"Five years ago," said Boundary, "you married the daughter of Lord
Westsevern. It cost you a hundred thousand pounds to pay the old man's
debts."

The Yorkshireman stared at him.

"How did you know that?" he asked.

"You're nominated for Parliament, too, aren't you. And you're to be
Mayor of Little Thornhill?"

Mr. Crotin laughed uproariously.

"Well, you've got me properly taped," he said admiringly, and the
colonel agreed with a gesture.

"So you're interested in the criminal classes?"

Mr. Crotin waved a protesting hand.

"I'm not saying you're a member of the criminal classes, colonel," he
said. "My friend Crewe he