The Spider and the Fly. Garvice Charles

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      He could not understand Mr. Leicester's sudden flight, and Mr. Starling, when interrogated, could not very much enlighten him.

      Jem or "Starling," as the captain now called him, entered his master's bedroom with the water for the bath, and found the captain still in bed, but with his head resting on one strong hand, and his face turned dreamily to the window.

      Starling grunted his morning salutation, and the captain nodded.

      "Go to the window," he said, "and tell me if that young Dodson's dogcart has come back; if I have calculated correctly, it has just had about time enough to get to the station and back."

      "Here it comes, captain."

      "Without Mr. Leicester?"

      "Without Mr. Leicester," replied Starling.

      "Then he has gone to town," said the captain, springing out of bed and stretching himself thoughtfully. "Gone to town! What the deuce has he gone to town for?"

      "That's what everybody wants to know," said Jem, from the next room, where he was spreading out the towels and pouring the water into the bath.

      "Did you make friends with the people in the servants' hall at the Cedars?" asked the captain.

      "I did, captain, obedient to your commands," said Jem with a wink. "And a very nice, genteel lot o' people they are, though I prefer the hall here, if there's any choice. Oh, yes, I walked up last night, permiscous like, and when they knew as I was your man they made me welcome, drawed me some of the best October and would 'a' opened a bottle of Madery, but I wouldn't hear on it – I allus was so modest. I had a cut of duck and a helpin' o' some sort o' cream with a long, furrin name – "

      "Tush! I don't want to know what you had to eat and drink," interrupted the captain. "What did you hear?"

      "Not much," he said, laying out the captain's ready-brushed morning suit. "I heard that Mr. Leicester was going up to London this morning, quite sudden like – and he ain't one of your impulse gents, neither. His man didn't know what was up, and depended to stop here for another month at the least. There wasn't anything awkward between the old people and the young 'un, neither, for the butler – which is a more high and mighty swell, in a bigger shirt front, than our chap – he heard Mr. Dodson beg o' Mr. Leicester to stop. But, no, he said he'd go, and gone he has, sure enough."

      "And now you can go," said the captain. "Stay! did you find that piece of paper which I told you to look for in the drawing room?"

      "No, captain, and I looked everywhere."

      "Idiot!" said the captain, between his teeth, "let that be a warning to you never to put your clumsy paw to paper again. How do I know who may have picked that up, with its cursed, telltale sentence?"

      "I beg pardon," said Jem, humbly, "but I thought I was doing right. This 'ere inspector was a man from London, and he might have spotted either of us – "

      "Enough," said the captain, with a displeased frown.

      "You were right to be cautious, and to give me warning, but you should have taken a better way in which to do it. Your grinning face and that stupid business of the letter were enough to arouse the suspicions of a child. Has the inspector gone?"

      "Yes, captain," said Jem, "went last night. Found everythink satisfactory; the force in fine condition, and the reserve able and active. He! he!"

      "What are you laughing at?" said the captain.

      "There's only one policeman – bar the coastguard, which don't count – in the place," grinned Jem.

      "Only one policeman – and the coastguard!" mused the captain.

      Then he muttered, "All the better," and, dismissing his faithful servant, he prepared for his bath.

      For a week Violet felt very dull, and the captain, who watched her closely behind his well-assumed simplicity and carelessness, found that all his amusing stories, songs and little pieces of acting failed to amuse her, and he was not surprised to hear Mrs. Mildmay say at breakfast one morning:

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