As the shouts came through the closed windows and the thick damask curtains, Bunting felt a sudden sense of mind hunger fall upon him.

It was a shame—­a damned shame—­that he shouldn’t know what was happening in the world outside!  Only criminals are kept from hearing news of what is going on beyond their prison walls.  And those shouts, those hoarse, sharp cries must portend that something really exciting had happened, something warranted to make a man forget for the moment his own intimate, gnawing troubles.

He got up, and going towards the nearest window strained his ears to listen.  There fell on them, emerging now and again from the confused babel of hoarse shouts, the one clear word “Murder!”

Slowly Bunting’s brain pieced the loud, indistinct cries into some sort of connected order.  Yes, that was it—­“Horrible Murder!  Murder at St. Pancras!” Bunting remembered vaguely another murder which had been committed near St. Pancras—­that of an old lady by her servant-maid.  It had happened a great many years ago, but was still vividly remembered, as of special and natural interest, among the class to which he had belonged.

The newsboys—­for there were more than one of them, a rather unusual thing in the Marylebone Road—­were coming nearer and nearer; now they had adopted another cry, but he could not quite catch what they were crying.  They were still shouting hoarsely, excitedly, but he could only hear a word or two now and then.  Suddenly “The Avenger!  The Avenger at his work again!” broke on his ear.

During the last fortnight four very curious and brutal murders had been committed in London and within a comparatively small area.

The first had aroused no special interest—­even the second had only been awarded, in the paper Bunting was still then taking in, quite a small paragraph.

Then had come the third—­and with that a wave of keen excitement, for pinned to the dress of the victim—­a drunken woman—­had been found a three-cornered piece of paper, on which was written, in red ink, and in printed characters, the words,

“The avenger”

It was then realised, not only by those whose business it is to investigate such terrible happenings, but also by the vast world of men and women who take an intelligent interest in such sinister mysteries, that the same miscreant had committed all three crimes; and before that extraordinary fact had had time to soak well into the public mind there took place yet another murder, and again the murderer had been to special pains to make it clear that some obscure and terrible lust for vengeance possessed him.

Now everyone was talking of The Avenger and his crimes!  Even the man who left their ha’porth of milk at the door each morning had spoken to Bunting about them that very day.

******

Bunting came back to the fire and looked down at his wife with mild excitement.  Then, seeing her pale, apathetic face, her look of weary, mournful absorption, a wave of irritation swept through him.  He felt he could have shaken her!