"Now, what do you mean by that?" asked Hench, startled. "Madame Alpenny----?" "You don't know her." "Oh yes, I do. I am not aware if Aunt Emma told you, but I went down to Bethnal Green for a day or so." "She told me last night, when I dined at her house. I was wondering why you went there?" "Where are your wits?" asked Vane in a surprised tone. "Of course, I went in your interest to that boarding-house and stopped for a couple of nights." "In my interest?" Hench raised himself on his elbow and stared at Vane with an uneasy look in his eyes. "Of course. You don't suppose that any business of my own took me down there, do you? So far as regards this murder of your uncle, you are not out of the wood yet, so I wanted to learn what I could to help you." "You're a real good fellow, Jim," said Owain gratefully. "Pfui! In the absence of briefs which don't come my way, it gives me something to do. Besides, if there is a row over the business you can engage me as your counsel, and then I'll make a big name straight away." "Oh, hang it"--Hench moved uneasily--"don't speak of that even in jest." "I'm not in jest, but in dead earnest," insisted Vane seriously. "I tell you Madame Alpenny is on the warpath." "What?" "There! there! Don't get excited, you silly ass. Let me begin at the beginning and end at the end." Vane blew a ring or so of smoke and went on talking. "I stayed at The Home of the Muses to see if Spruce knew anything about that advertisement, as I dreaded him rather than the old woman. Of course, he knew me as a pal of yours at the old school, and was very curious to know where you had got to." "You didn't tell him, I hope?" Vane shook his head. "Is thy servant an ass that he should do so? Of course I lay low like Brer Rabbit, and let Spruce babble on. He doesn't know anything about your real name, or the advertisement, or your accession to fortune, or anything else. He'd have let the information slip had he known. So far as Spruce is concerned you can set your mind at rest. I'm glad such is the case, Owain, for he's a dangerous monkey." "Humph!" said Hench meditatively. "If he is ignorant why does he wish to know where I am?" "Because, having made London too hot for him over that card affair, with which I charged him, by the way, he wants to seek fresh fields and pastures new. He had an idea--I think you told him--that you were going away into the lands at the back-of-beyond, so thought he'd like to come with you." "I wouldn't have him as a gift as a companion," said Hench with disgust. "So I told him, and he wasn't exactly pleased. At all events, since I ostensibly didn't know where you were he shut up, and gave me the cold shoulder on account of my nasty manner towards him with regard to the cheating. I do think," finished Vane calmly, "that he's the most abject Gadarene swine I have ever met."