He had never intended that it should be. Long before the time when a penny could be touched or anything be sold, he would take his place in society again, with a marvellous tale, if necessary, of his adventures and hairbreadth escapes. He wanted to wait until he was quite certain that the clergyman of the _Bon Espoir_ had not been rescued, and then, all fear being over, the sea should give up her dead. His time of concealment was, however, considerably shortened by an accident. Standing under a doorway one evening to escape a violent storm, he heard a cry from the opposite side, and the next moment he saw Grigg and Limpet’s clerk hurrying towards him. Obeying his first impulse, he ran away; but Jabez caught him up and seized him by the arm. Then he felt that all concealment was at an end. ‘Hulloh Duck, how are you?’ he said quietly, as if nothing had happened. ‘I thought you were a garrotter.’ Jabez stood looking at him, the picture of blank amazement. ‘Mr. Egerton,’ he stammered, ‘I——’ But the ghost interrupted him curtly: ‘I’m in a hurry now. Tell Grigg and Limpet I’ll call on them to-morrow.’ And on went Mr. Egerton, leaving Jabez to go home through the pouring rain with a piece of information which astonished the little birthday party considerably, and brought Miss Georgina out of the coal-cellar long before the thunderstorm had subsided. CHAPTER XVI. LIMPET, JUNIOR, TRANSACTS SOME BUSINESS. Messrs. Grigg & Limpet Were duly informed of Mr. Gurth Egerton’s mysterious resurrection, by their faithful clerk, and sat in state all the morning, ready to receive their adventurous and eccentric client. Both Grigg and Limpet were anxious to have the mystery of his laziness in coming to life explained, and had been puzzling their brains to account for it. Yet when, shortly after noon, Mr. Gurth Egerton was announced as having entered the clerks’ office, there was no departure from the usual ceremony. ‘Say we are engaged, and show Mr. Egerton into room B,’ said Mr. Limpet. Then Grigg pulled out his watch, while Limpet read the _Times_. ‘Time?’ said Grigg, presently. ‘How long has he waited,’ asked Limpet. ‘Ten minutes,’ answered Grigg. ‘Give him another two, then,’ said Limpet, as though Mr. Gurth Egerton were an egg, and it was a question of how long he should be boiled. When the twelve minutes were up Limpet rang a bell, and the clerk went in search of Mr. Egerton, and bowed him into the presence of the firm.