It is a sickening feeling when the evidence against you is going to be secured, and you don't know what the punishment for coining is, or whether anyone will believe you if you say you were only playing at it. We exchanged pallid glances. We could hear the two men shaking the door, and we had no means of knowing just how weak it was, never having seriously tampered with it ourselves. It was then that Noel suddenly went quite mad. I think it was due to something old nurse had read to us at breakfast that day about a boy of eight who played on the fiddle, and composed pieces of music. Affected young ass! He darted from us into the middle of the room, where the two intruders could see him, and said: 'Don't break down the door! The villains may return any moment and destroy you. Fetch the police!' The surprised outsiders could find no word but 'Er?' 'You are surprised to see me here,' said Noel, not taking any notice of the furious looks of the rest of us. 'I am an infant prodigy. I play the violin at concerts; I play it beautifully. They take me to London to play in a closed carriage, so that I can't tell anyone my woes on the way.' 'My poor child!' said one of the outsiders; 'tell us all about it. We must rescue you.' 'Born of poor but honest parents,' said Noel--and this was what nurse had read out to us--'my musical talent early manifested itself on a toy violin, the gift of a devoted great-aunt. Torn from my home----I say, do fetch the police. If the monsters who live on my violin-playing return and find you here, they will brain you with the tools of their trade, and I shall be lost.' 'Their trade?' said one of them. 'What trade?' 'They are coiners,' said Noel, 'as well as what they do to me to make me play.' 'But if we leave you?' 'Oh, they won't hurt _me_,' cried Noel, 'because I have to play to-night at Exeter Hall. Fly--fly for the police! They may come up behind you any moment and cleave you to the chine.' And they actually flew. The present author would have known instantly that it was rot that about cleaving chines, but the man who wanted to let the Disenchanteried House and the man who wanted to have it let to him were of other mettle. We had remained perfectly still and silent. Of course, if the outsiders had attacked Noel, his brothers would have rushed to his rescue. As soon as the retreating boots of the outsiders grew fainter on the stairs, Noel turned green, and had to be revived by splashings from the brotherly coal-scuttle full of water. He got better directly, and we all scooted home to old nurse's, leaving our coining plant without a pang. All great generals say that a retreat is best conducted without impediments.