s
protruding further than usual, and cried: "The scoundrel! The blackguard!
I'll teach him! I'll gaol him!"

He dashed at the electric bell by the fireplace, set his thumb on it, and
kept it there.

Holloway, the second footman, came running. The servants knew their
master's ring. They always ran to answer it, after some discussion as to
which of them should go.

He entered and said: "Yes, m'lord?"

"Send that scoundrel Hutchings to me! Send him at once!" roared
his master.

"Yes, m'lord," said Holloway, and hurried away.

He found James Hutchings in his pantry, told him that their master wanted
him, and added that he was in a tearing rage.

Hutchings, who never expected his sanguine and irascible master to be in
any other mood, finished the paragraph of the article in the _Daily
Telegraph_ he was reading, put on his coat, and went to the study. His
delay gave Lord Loudwater's wrath full time to mature.

When the butler entered his master shook his fist at him and roared: "You
scoundrel! You infernal scoundrel! You've been robbing me! You've been
robbing me for years, you blackguard!"

James Hutchings met the charge with complete calm. He shook his head and
said in a surly tone: "No; I haven't done anything of the kind, m'lord."

The flat denial infuriated his master yet more. He spluttered and was for
a while incoherent. Then he became again articulate and said: "You have,
you rogue! You took a commission--a secret commission on that fifty dozen
of champagne I bought last month. You've been doing it for years."

James Hutchings' surly face was transformed. It grew malignant; his
fierce, protruding, red-rimmed blue eyes sparkled balefully, and he
flushed to a redness as deep as that of his master. He knew at once who
had betrayed him, and he was furious--at the betrayal. At the same time,
he was not greatly alarmed; he had never received a cheque from the wine
merchants; all their payments to him had been in cash, and he had always
cherished a warm contempt for his master.

"I haven't," he said fiercely. "And if I had it would be quite
regular--only a perquisite."

For the hundredth time Mr. Manley remarked the likeness between Lord
Loudwater and his butler. They had the same fierce, protruding,
red-rimmed blue eyes, the same narrow, low forehead, the same large ears.
Hutchings' hair was a darker brown than Lord Loudwater's, and his lips
were thinner. But Mr. Manley was sure that, had he worn a beard ins