died I went
to Jane Baylis as housekeeper, and when she retired from that and came
to live in that boarding-house where we live now, she was forced to
bring me with her and to keep me. Why had she to do that, young man?"

"Heaven knows!" answered Spargo.

"Because I've got a hold on her, young man--I've got a secret of hers,"
continued Mother Gutch. "She'd be scared to death if she knew I'd been
behind that hedge and had heard what she said to you, and she'd be more
than scared if she knew that you and I were here, talking. But she's
grown hard and near with me, and she won't give me a penny to get a
drop of anything with, and an old woman like me has a right to her
little comforts, and if you'll buy the secret, young man, I'll split on
her, there and then, when you pay the money."

"Before I talk about buying any secret," said Spargo, "you'll have to
prove to me that you've a secret to sell that's worth my buying."

"And I will prove it!" said Mother Gutch with sudden fierceness. "Touch
the bell, and let me have another glass, and then I'll tell you. Now,"
she went on, more quietly--Spargo noticed that the more she drank, the
more rational she became, and that her nerves seemed to gain strength
and her whole appearance to be improved--"now, you came to her to find
out about her brother-in-law, Maitland, that went to prison, didn't
you?"

"Well?" demanded Spargo.

"And about that boy of his?" she continued.

"You heard all that was said," answered Spargo. "I'm waiting to hear
what you have to say."

But Mother Gutch was resolute in having her own way. She continued her
questions:

"And she told you that Maitland came and asked for the boy, and that
she told him the boy was dead, didn't she?" she went on.

"Well?" said Spargo despairingly. "She did. What then?"

Mother Gutch took an appreciative pull at her glass and smiled
knowingly. "What then?" she chuckled. "All lies, young man, the boy
isn't dead--any more than I am. And my secret is--"

"Well?" demanded Spargo impatiently. "What is it?"

"This!" answered Mother Gutch, digging her companion in the ribs, "I
know what she did with him!"

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

REVELATIONS

Spargo turned on his disreputable and dissolute companion with all his
journalistic energies and instincts roused. He had not been sure, since
entering the "King of Madagascar," that he was going to hear anything
material to the Middle Temple Murder; he had more than once