It was dark by the time he reached Barnet; his feet were aching; he was hot and wretched. He had suffered the indignity of being chased off the pavement by a policeman he could have licked with one hand, and he cursed the Frog with every step he took. There was still a long walk ahead of him once he was clear of Barnet; and it was not until a village clock was striking the hour of eleven that he ambled up to a figure that was sitting on the side of the road, just visible in the pale moonlight, but only recognizable when he spoke. “Is that you?” said a voice. “Yes, it’s me. You’re Carter, aren’t you?” “Good Lord!” gasped Ray as he recognized the voice. “It’s Lew Brady!” “It’s nothing of the kind!” snarled the other man. “My name’s Phenan. Yours is Carter. Sit down for a bit. I’m dead beat.” “What is the idea?” asked the youth as they sat side by side. “How the devil do I know?” said the other savagely as, with a tender movement, he slipped off his boots and rubbed his bruised feet. “I had no idea it was you,” said Ray. “I knew it was you, all right,” said the other. “And why I should be called upon to take a mug around this country, God knows!” After a while he was rested sufficiently to continue the tramp. “There’s a barn belonging to a shopkeeper in the next village. He’ll let us sleep there for a few pence.” “Why not try to get a room?” “Don’t be a fool,” snapped Lew. “Who’s going to take in a couple of tramps, do you think? We know we’re clean, but they don’t. No, we’ve got to go the way the tramps go.” “Where? To Nottingham?” “I don’t know. If they told you Nottingham, I should say that’s the last place in the world we shall go to. I’ve got a sealed envelope in my pocket. When we reach Baldock I shall open it.” They slept that night in the accommodating barn—a draughty shed, populated, it seemed, by chickens and rats, and Ray had a restless night and thought longingly of his own little bed at Maytree Cottage. Strangely enough, he did not dwell on the more palatial establishment in Knightsbridge. The next day it rained, and they did not reach Baldock until late in the afternoon, and, sitting down under the cover of a hedge, Brady opened the envelope and read its contents, his companion watching him expectantly.