ill appreciate the
difficulty. With the idea, presumably, of inducing the doctor's wife to
leave her husband's roof-tree for some habitation which would be run at
my expense, I had crammed my pockets with a store of banknotes, which
represented a good deal of my immediate worldly wealth. When, therefore,
I stole away into the world in the guise of a nameless Salvationist, I
was not without resources which would easily support so humble a role for
a considerable period. I tramped to a neighbouring market-town, and,
late as the hour was, the production of a few shillings procured me
supper and a night's lodging in a cheap coffee-house. The next day I
started forth on an aimless course of wandering from one small town to
another. I was already somewhat disgusted with the upshot of my sudden
freak; in a few hours' time I was considerably more so. In the
contents-bill of a local news sheet I read the announcement of my own
murder at the hands of some person unknown; on buying a copy of the paper
for a detailed account of the tragedy, which at first had aroused in me a
certain grim amusement, I found that the deed ascribed to a wandering
Salvationist of doubtful antecedents, who had been seen lurking in the
roadway near the scene of the crime. I was no longer amused. The matter
promised to be embarrassing. What I had mistaken for a motor accident
was evidently a case of savage assault and murder, and, until the real
culprit was found, I should have much difficulty in explaining my
intrusion into the affair. Of course I could establish my own identity;
but how, without disagreeably involving the doctor's wife, could I give
any adequate reason for changing clothes with the murdered man? While my
brain worked feverishly at this problem, I subconsciously obeyed a
secondary instinct--to get as far away as possible from the scene of the
crime, and to get rid at all costs of my incriminating uniform. There I
found a difficulty. I tried two or three obscure clothes shops, but my
entrance invariably aroused an attitude of hostile suspicion in the
proprietors, and on one excuse or another they avoided serving me with
the now ardently desired change of clothing. The uniform that I had so
thoughtlessly donned seemed as difficult to get out of as the fatal shirt
of--You know, I forget the creature's name."

"Yes, yes," said the Chaplain hurriedly. "Go on with your story."

"Somehow, until I could get out of those compromisi