“You have certainly led me to modify my opinion of your last performance.”

“Which nearly gave me away.  So you won’t send me to the penitentiary; thanks!  And now, as I said at first, how’s Toner?”

“Oh, Toner’s all right, with the fieriest skin on him that ever lay between two sheets.  He has promised to give up drinking.”

“It’s very likely he’ll have to.”

“Why so?”

“They don’t allow refreshments so strong in gaol.”

“Be as easy as you can with the poor fellow, Mr. Nash.”

“All depends on his future behaviour, and, in some other capacity, I shall let him know his danger.”

As the two figures came down the road toward the Inn, a voice hailed them, the voice of the dominie.  “Is Mr. Coristine there?” it shouted.

“Yes; here am I,” came from the back of the horse.

“What bones are broken or wounds received?” was the pitiful but correct question.

“Not a bone nor a wound.  Mr. Nash has treated me to a ride.”

“Aw ca!” ejaculated Pierre, “M’syae Nasha homme treh subtil, treh ruse, conneh tout le monde, fait pear aux mauveh sujah.”

“What is he?” asked the schoolmaster, speaking English, in his eagerness; and the landlord replied in the same.

“Ee is vat you call detecteur, police offisare vis no close on ’im.  Anysing vas to go in ze custom house and goes not, he find it out.  O, a veray clevaire mann!”

Coristine dismounted for the purpose of introducing his companion.  Personally, he would as readily have performed this office on horseback, but he knew that the schoolmaster was a stickler for ceremony.  While the introduction was going on, Pierre took Mr. Nash’s horse by the bridle, and led the procession home.  There, Madame stood in the porch eagerly waiting for news of “ce jeune homme si courageux, si benveillont,” and was delighted to hear that he was safe, and that Mr. Nash, an old acquaintance, was with him.  When the party entered the house, Wilkinson looked at the detective, and then, with a start, said:  “Why, you are Dowling, the Dowling who came to the Sacheverell Street School, with a peremptory letter from the trustees, to take the lower division boys, and disappeared in ten days.”

“The same, Mr. Wilkinson; I knew you as soon as I heard your voice.”

“You disarranged our work pretty well for us, Mr. Dow—­Nash.  What were you after there, if it is a fair question?”

“I was after the confidence of some innocent youngsters, who could give me pointers on grindstones and their relation to the family income.  As I know you both, and our friends of the hotel are not listening, I may say that I am so interested in this problem as to have made up my mind to go into grindstones myself.”