change of remarks between Sir Charles and myself in the courtyard. She listened eagerly, and her eyes lit up.
"Ah!" she said. "I see what he meant! He meant that on your telling Jimmie of the doings at Newcastle, and that Sir Charles might be expected, Jimmie cleared out quick!"
"Well, didn't he clear out?" said I.
She looked at me a moment in silence; then she nodded her head, as much as to assent to an undeniable proposition.
"I suppose he did!" she answered.
"Suppose? He did clear out!" I exclaimed. "Before morning! Why?"
"Didn't want to meet this pompous old person," she said. "That seems to be about it. Yes, I think Jimmie decidedly cleared out!"
"Leaving us to face this sort of thing," I said. "If one only knew what it's all about, what it means, why there's this hue-and-cry after that box———"
"I think the copper box is only a small part of it," she interrupted. "It's—a sort of handle, a clue, a—something!"
"Decidedly a something," I assented. "Doubtless you observed that old White
