Produced by Al Haines [Frontispiece: "Here's my father, or the police!"] THE ADMIRABLE TINKER CHILD OF THE WORLD BY EDGAR JEPSON Illustrated by Margaret Eckerson NEW YORK McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. MCMIV Copyright, 1904, by McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. Published, March, 1904 Third Impression COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING CO. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. SIR TANCRED'S QUEST II. THE FINDING OF TINKER III. TINKER ACCEPTS HIS NAME IV. THE TRAINING OF TINKER V. TINKER'S BIRTHDAY BLOODHOUND VI. THE RESCUE OF ELIZABETH KERNABY VII. THE STOLEN FLYING-MACHINE VIII. THE BARON AND THE MONEY-LENDER IX. TINKER INTERVENES X. TINKER'S FOUNDLING XI. TINKER FROM THE MACHINE XII. TINKER BORROWS A MOTOR-CAR XIII. TINKER MEETS HIS OLD NURSE XIV. TINKER TAKES SEPTIMUS RAINER IN HAND XV. TINKER ASSERTS THE RIGHTS OF THE EMPLOYER XVI. TINKER DISOWNS HIS GRANDMOTHER XVII. TINKER AND THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "Here's my father, or the police!" . . . Frontispiece He surveyed himself with an excited curiosity. "I can't hold him!" He poured comforting assurances of safety into her ears. "She was quite out of control for a good five minutes." "To-night reflect on your misdeeds. To-morrow we will treat of your ransom." The pursuit was lively, but short. It was his first essay as coiffeur. As a battering-ram against the first and second buttons of his waistcoat. "Hold it back!" screamed Tinker. Over these agreeable occupations they talked. And she paused to let the splendour of the gift sink in. It's time these lubbers walked the plank. THE ADMIRABLE TINKER CHAPTER ONE SIR TANCRED'S QUEST "It is," said Lord Crosland, "deucedly odd." "What?" said Sir Tancred Beauleigh. "That after seeing nothing of one another for nearly three years, we should arrive at this caravanserai from different stations at the same time, to find that our letters engaging this set of rooms came by the same post." "It comes of having been born on the same day," said Sir Tancred. "Besides, I always told you that the only possible place to live in in town was the top left-hand corner of the Hotel Cecil, with this view up the river, and a nice open breezy space in front of you." Lord Crosland, who was walking up and down the room as he talked, stopped to gaze out of the window at Westminster, and Sir Tancred lighted another cigarette. "What I like about it is, it's retired--out of the world," said Lord Crosland. "It was just that recommended it to me." A waiter came in, and cleared away the breakfast. Lord Crosland admired the view; Sir Tancred lay back in his easy chair, gazing with vacant, sombre eyes into the clear blue vault of the summer sky. "I can't see why we shouldn't share these rooms for the season," said Lord Crosland, when the waiter had gone with his tray. "We shall get on all right; we always did at Vane's."