The Little Nugget

that night. By sheer weight ofboredom, Glossop drove me from the house, so that it came aboutthat, at

Abney's study for coffee. The room wascalled the study, but it was really more of a master

mosphere of a private school that everybody is always meetingeverybody else. To avoid a man for long is impossible. I had beena

amazed me thatthey should find the game worth the candle. What they add to theirincomes I do not know, but it cannot be very much, and the troublethey have to take is colossal

te it. Mr Abneyhad scarcely left the room when he b

le thing from purely altruistic motives,entirely for my good, and partly because he forced me to face thefact that I was not always going to be young. In an abstractfashion I had already realized that I should in time cease to bethirty, but the way in which Glossop spoke of

eel my hair

ve; and, murmuring somethingabout thi

apable of followingme, I had no refuge but the

he trees grewso closely about the house that it was too

mebody walking up the drive--one of the maids, Isupposed, returning from her eve

been under Glossop's gloom-breeding spell, for I was filled with

If Nature had made me so self-satisfied thatI had lost Audrey because of my self-sati

mactive work, my thoughts should keep turning to her. It frightene

t know where she was. I did not know how shefared. I did not know what sort of a ma

whom I had never seenand whose very name I di

n. I might have known that Sanstead House would neverpermit solitary broodi

illness of the night wassplit by a sound which I could have heard in a gale and recognizedamong a hundred conflicting noises. It was a scream, a shrill,piercing squeal th

ace of life, but tonight eventssucceeded one another with a rapidity which surprised me. A wh

e, and I stood, startled into rigidity, holding it in theair as if I ha

a few seconds later before somep

nfusion indoors, when this person, rounding the angle of thehouse i

ncefrom the ground as my solar plexus. In the brief impact whichensued between the two, the shoulder had the advantage of bein

ken by the encounter wasmade clear by a sha

rest tome. I gather that he escaped into the night. But I

hey ceased to occupy hismind from the moment when Mr Fitzsimmons administered that historicleft jab. In my case the cure was instantaneous. I can rememberreeling across the

enter the oldhome, I do not know; but it cannot have been many minutes, for thehouse was only just beginning to disg

ations of thisremarkable night were not yet over. As I reached a sittingposition, and paused before adventuring f

onwho the speaker might be, and no curiosity. Breathing just thenhad all the glamour of a difficult feat cleverly performed. Iconcentrated my whole attention upon it. I was pleased, andsurprised,

ting. Mr Abney's reedy tenor voice was issuingdirections, each of which reached a dizzier height of futilitythan the last. Glossop was repeating over and over again thewords, 'Shall I telephone for the p

ame from the direction of thestable-yard with a carriage-lamp. Every one seemed calmer andhappier for it. The boys stopped squealing, Mrs Attwell andGlossop subside

of the company gath

Mr Abney. 'Excellent. I fea

spect s

y remarkable occ

es,

ctually in Maste

deed,

of AugustusBeckford, always to be counted upon t

sir? Have you ever met a burglar, sir? My father took meto see Raffles

e was full of boys actively engaged incatching their deaths of cold. His all-friends-here-let-us-discuss-this-interesting-episode-fully manner chang

bed? Go back to bed instantly. Ish

for the police?' aske

old. This isdisgraceful. Ten bad marks! I shall p

oice inter

'S

ing a dressing-gown, and in his hand was a smoulderingcigarette, from wh

wrong. That wasn't any

otions of the night, was almost too much for MrAbney. He gesticulated for a m

e, boy! How _dare_ you

've got,' responded th

warned you--Ten bad marks!--I

ored the painful scene.

If you want my opinion, it was BuckMacGinnis, or Chicago Ed., or one of those guys, and what h

me? Will you re

the piece there was aboutit in the papers.

nto my album. If you'll come right along, I'll show youthe story about Buck n

ty bad

r Ab

Till now he or shehad remained a silent spectator,

together, like a

ell by the sound of hisvoice that his nerv

for the police?' as

Mr Abney. You were e

xpected you in a cab. I expect

wal

in a whisper--or, tome, in my dazed state, it had sounded like a whisper--but now shewas raising her voice, an

sensation, but nothing moredefini

ne of the me

ggestion about thetelephone with a new ring of hope in his voice. Mrs Attwellshrieked. They made for us in a bo

ct hewas about to ask me if I liked sitting on the gravel on

dear me!--_what_ ar

some information as to where the

en't the least idea where he went. All I know about him is thathe has a

woman who stirred my memory with hervoice. But the rays of the lantern did not fall on her,

med my n

heard a scream--' A chuckle camef

d a strong-armedroughneck prising you out of bed as if you were a clam? He tried toget his hand over my mouth, but

reminiscently, and

y that cigarette!' cried Mr Abne

dvised the Littl

'somebody whizzed out

I spoke in the direction of my captor. She was stillstanding outside the

was likely to be of anypractical use,

nin doubt. I knew the voice now. It was one which I had not heardfo

ounding,and a curious dizziness had come over me. I was grap

om Mr Abney's reply; that hehad made his

we had all betterreturn to the house.' He turned to the dim figure beside me. 'Ah,Mrs Sheridan, you must be ti

teppedforward, for the rays shifted. The figure beside me was

mine as, in the greyLondon morning two weeks