had
tinkled on the pavement, when I tore it from him.

[Illustration: A heavy blackthorn held in murderous poise.]

Panting, I looked to see what had become of the small boy. He had taken
to his heels as though the foul fiend were at them; his late pursuer was
now his companion in flight, and I was thankful to find we had the scene
to ourselves. Delavoye was pointing to the little thing that had tinkled
as it fell, and as he pointed the blood dripped from his hand, and he
shuddered like a man recovering from a fit.

I had better admit plainly that the thing was that old ring with the
white peacock set in red, and that Uvo Delavoye was once more as I had
known him down to that hour.

"Don't touch the beastly thing!" he cried. "It's served me worse than it
served poor Berridge! I shall have to think of a fresh lie to tell
him--and it won't come so easy now--but I'd rather cut mine off than
trust this on another human hand!"

He picked it up between his finger-nails. And there was blood on the
white peacock when I saw it next on Richmond Bridge.

"Don't you worry about my hand," said Uvo as he glanced up and down the
grey old bridge. "It's only a scratch from the blackthorn spikes, but
I'd have given a finger to be shot of this devil!"

A flick of his wrist sent the old ring spinning; we saw it meet its own
reflection in the glassy flood, like a salmon-fly beautifully thrown;
and more rings came and widened on the waters, till they stirred the
mirrored branches of the trees on Richmond Hill.

CHAPTER IV

The Local Colour

The Reverend Charles Brabazon, magnetic Vicar of the adjacent Village,
had as strong a personality as one could wish to encounter in real life.
He did what he liked with a congregation largely composed of the motley
worldlings of Witching Hill. Small solicitors and west-end tradesmen,
bank officials, outside brokers, first-class clerks in Government
offices, they had not a Sunday soul to call their own, these hard-headed
holders of season tickets to Waterloo.

Throughout the summer they flocked to church when their hearts were on
the river; in the depths of winter they got up for early celebration on
the one morning when they might have lain abed. Their most obsequious
devotions did not temper the preacher's truculence, any more than his
strongest onslaught discouraged their good works. They gave of their
substance at his every call, and were even more lavish on their own
initiative.