Still, ’twouldn’t do Joe a bit of harm not to see the girl for a couple of days.  In fact ’twould be a very good thing, for then he’d think of Daisy—­think of her to the exclusion of all else.  Absence does make the heart grow fonder—­at first, at any rate.  Mrs. Bunting was well aware of that.  During the long course of hers and Bunting’s mild courting, they’d been separated for about three months, and it was that three months which had made up her mind for her.  She had got so used to Bunting that she couldn’t do without him, and she had felt—­oddest fact of all—­acutely, miserably jealous.  But she hadn’t let him know that—­no fear!

Of course, Joe mustn’t neglect his job—­that would never do.  But what a good thing it was, after all, that he wasn’t like some of those detective chaps that are written about in stories—­the sort of chaps that know everything, see everything, guess everything —­even where there isn’t anything to see, or know, or guess!

Why, to take only one little fact—­Joe Chandler had never shown the slightest curiosity about their lodger. . . .

Mrs. Bunting pulled herself together with a start, and hurried quickly on.  Bunting would begin to wonder what had happened to her.

She went into the Post Office and handed the form to the young woman without a word.  Margaret, a sensible woman, who was accustomed to manage other people’s affairs, had even written out the words:  “Will be with you to tea.—­Daisy.”

It was a comfort to have the thing settled once for all.  If anything horrible was going to happen in the next two or three days—­it was just as well Daisy shouldn’t be at home.  Not that there was any real danger that anything would happen,—­Mrs. Bunting felt sure of that.

By this time she was out in the street again, and she began mentally counting up the number of murders The Avenger had committed.  Nine, or was it ten?  Surely by now The Avenger must be avenged?  Surely by now, if—­as that writer in the newspaper had suggested—­he was a quiet, blameless gentleman living in the West End, whatever vengeance he had to wreak, must be satisfied?

She began hurrying homewards; it wouldn’t do for the lodger to ring before she had got back.  Bunting would never know how to manage Mr. Sleuth, especially if Mr. Sleuth was in one of his queer moods.

******

Mrs. Bunting put the key into the front door lock and passed into the house.  Then her heart stood still with fear and terror.  There came the sound of voices—­of voices she thought she did not know—­ in the sitting-room.

She opened the door, and then drew a long breath.  It was only Joe Chandler—­Joe, Daisy, and Bunting, talking together.  They stopped rather guiltily as she came in, but not before she had heard Chandler utter the words:  “That don’t mean nothing!  I’ll just run out and send another saying you won’t come, Miss Daisy.”

And then the strangest smile came over Mrs. Bunting’s face.  There had fallen on her ear the still distant, but unmistakable, shouts which betokened that something had happened last night—­something which made it worth while for the newspaper-sellers to come crying down the Marylebone Road.