opose to find him?" inquired the head master, with only
a dry smile (which disappointed Spearman) by way of rejoinder.

"First I shall have a word with these infernal people who, on their own
showing, refused the boy a bed. I'll give them a bit of my mind, I
promise you! Then there's the hotel they seem to have driven him to; it
may be the one we always stay at, or one they've recommended. If I can't
hear anything of him there, I suppose there'll be nothing for it but to
call in the police."

"My dear sir," exclaimed the head master, "you may as well call in the
public at once! It will be in the papers before you know where you are;
and that, I need hardly point out to you, is as undesirable from our point
of view as I should have thought it would be from yours."

"It's more so from mine!" cried Mr. Upton, in fresh alarm and indignation.
"You think about your school. I think about my wife and boy; it might
kill her to hear about this before he's found. But if I don't go to the
police, who am I to go to?" The head master leant back in his chair, and
joined his finger-tips judicially.

"There was a man we had down here to investigate an extraordinary case of
dishonesty, in which I was actually threatened with legal proceedings on
behalf of a certain boy. But this man Thrush came down and solved the
mystery within twenty-four hours, and saved the school a public scandal."

"He may save you another," said Mr. Upton, "if he can find my boy. What
did you say the name was?"

"Thrush--Eugene Thrush--quite a remarkable man, and, I think, a gentleman,"
said the head master impressively. Further particulars, including an
address in Glasshouse Street, were readily supplied from an advertisement
in that day's _Times,_ in which Mr. Thrush was described as an "inquiry
agent," capable alike of "delicate investigations" and "confidential
negotiations."

That was the very man for Mr. Upton, as he himself agreed. And he
departed both on speaking terms with Mr. Spearman, who said a final word
for his own behaviour in the matter, and grimly at one with the head
master on the importance of keeping it out of the papers.

MR. EUGENE THRUSH

The remarkable Mr. Thrush was a duly qualified solicitor, who had never
been the man for that orderly and circumscribed profession. The tide of
events which had turned his talents into their present channel, was known
to but few of his many boon companions, and much nonsense w