rious. Now, come along with me and talk to these people.
We'll let your wife catch us here. An audience ought to give you
courage. Mind!" he added, holding Robert by the arm as they began to
walk toward the aeroplane, "there must be no weakening, however terrible
she may appear. Be a man, and you'll triumph!"

It was all very well to urge him to be a man, but Mr. Hedderwick had
been through a very tense six hours. When he escaped from the vicarage
he rushed straight for The Happy Heart. There he instructed Mr. Glew in
a sentence of some five hundred words, without so much as a comma
intervening, that he meant to retire to his room at once, that he was to
be denied to all callers, that casual inquirers were to be told that he
had gone to the station, that on no account must any one be allowed to
come up-stairs, and that information was to be given when the coast was
clear. "I'll explainitalllaterglewwhenihavetimebutrememberthatit's
afiverinyourpocketifIcomethroughto-daysafe," he babbled, dashing furiously
up-stairs. "Right, sir," responded Glew, a creature to whom the word
"fiver" was all that was necessary by way of present explanation.
Robert's bedroom door slammed and was locked behind him long before the
"Right, sir" had died away.

The visit of Mrs. Hedderwick and the vicar's wife made matters fairly
clear to the landlord; but, true to his salt and interest, he persisted
in the tale that Robert had gone to the station. His story was
disbelieved. This was not to be wondered at, considering the paucity of
his inventive powers and imagination; for Glew did not adduce a particle
of corroborative detail to support his statement. The ladies simply
declined to give him credence, and demanded to be shown Mr. "Bangs'"
bedroom. Foiled in this amiable purpose, the determined pair announced
their intentions of waiting in the parlor till the victim appeared. The
landlord's renewed protests and offers of affidavits had no weight with
them, and they sat down with an awful dignity.

At two o'clock Mrs. Peters' weariness conquered her curiosity, and she
went home, offering unbounded sympathy and a bed for the night. The
sympathy was accepted, the bed declined, Mrs. Hedderwick declaring she
would remain at the inn, if necessary sitting up in a chair till
morning.

Glew had no wish for this, and cast about him for means of getting rid
of the undesired guest. At six o'clock he sent his hopeful son
up-stairs, himself keeping guard o