“Hush, hush!” Hewitt said; “you mustn’t talk unkindly of a lady, you know.  Get into this carriage, and we’ll take you home.  We’ll see if I can tell you your adventures without making a mistake.  First, you had a note from Miss Webb, telling you that you were mistaken in supposing she had slighted you, and that, as a matter of fact, she had quite done with somebody else—­left him—­of whom you were jealous.  Isn’t that so?”

“Well, yes,” young Crockett answered, blushing deeply under the carriage-lamp; “but I don’t see how you come to know that.”

“Then she went on to ask you to get rid of Steggles on Thursday afternoon for a few minutes, and speak to her in the back lane.  Now, your running pumps, with their thin soles, almost like paper, no heels and long spikes, hurt your feet horribly if you walk on hard ground, don’t they?”

“Ay, that they do—­enough to cripple you.  I’d never go on much hard ground with ’em.”

“They’re not like cricket shoes, I see.”

“Not a bit.  Cricket shoes you can walk anywhere in!”

“Well, she knew this—­I think I know who told her—­and she promised to bring you a new pair of slippers, and to throw them over the fence for you to come out in.”

“I s’pose she’s been tellin’ you all this?” Crockett said, mournfully.  “You couldn’t ha’ seen the letter; I saw her tear it up and put the bits in her pocket.  She asked me for it in the lane, in case Steggles saw it.”

“Well, at any rate, you sent Steggles away, and the slippers did come over, and you went into the lane.  You walked with her as far as the road at the end, and then you were seized and gagged, and put into a carriage.”

“That was Browdie did that,” said Crockett, “and another chap I don’t know.  But—­why, this is Padfield High Street?” He looked through the window and regarded the familiar shops with astonishment.

“Of course it is.  Where did you think it was?”

“Why, where was that place you found me in?”

“Granville Road, Padfield.  I suppose they told you you were in another town?”

“Told me it was Newstead Hatch.  They drove for about three or four hours, and kept me down on the floor between the seats so as I couldn’t see where we was going.”

“Done for two reasons,” said Hewitt.  “First, to mystify you, and prevent any discovery of the people directing the conspiracy; and second, to be able to put you indoors at night and unobserved.  Well, I think I have told you all you know yourself now as far as the carriage.

“But there is the Hare and Hounds just in front.  We’ll pull up here, and I’ll get out and see if the coast is clear.  I fancy Mr. Kentish would rather you came in unnoticed.”

In a few seconds Hewitt was back, and Crockett was conveyed indoors by a side entrance.  Hewitt’s instructions to the landlord were few, but emphatic.  “Don’t tell Steggles about it,” he said; “make an excuse to get rid of him, and send him out of the house.  Take Crockett into some other bedroom, not his own, and let your son look after him.  Then come here, and I’ll tell you all about it.”