"It ain't unlikely," returned Joe, with an appreciative grin. "Any'ow, we'll 'ave a nice little walk rahnd the 'ouses, an' if we don't do nothing else, we'll get 'old of a decent thirst." He knocked out his pipe, and, thrusting it into his pocket, drifted off inconspicuously amongst the stream of passers-by. The whole thing had happened so quickly that up till then Colin's chief feeling had been one of complete surprise. Left to himself, however, the real significance of Fenton's appearance in this out-of-the-way neighbourhood suddenly came home to him with convincing force. Shadwell was about the last part of London that such a man would be likely to patronize unless he had some extremely definite reason for undertaking the journey. Only one reason suggested itself to Colin, namely, the presence of Nancy at Mark's house. That was certainly sufficient to account for the Major's visit, though why he should be standing in the door of an adjacent pub, talking to an obvious ruffian like Mr. "Spike" Cooper, was another problem to which no immediate answer seemed to be forthcoming. Pondering over this point as he walked toward the surgery, Colin felt exceedingly thankful that he had had the happy inspiration to despatch Joe in pursuit of the stranger. If some underhand business were going on in connection with Nancy, it would be just as well to make certain whether this sinister-looking individual had anything to do with the proceedings. Of course, it was quite possible that the two men had met merely by chance. Being mixed up with the Turf, Fenton no doubt possessed a number of undesirable acquaintances, and he might have stumbled across one of them accidentally just as he was about to enter the station. That, indeed, seemed to be the most likely explanation, but, even so, any information that Joe could pick up would certainly not be wasted. If it served no other purpose, it would probably assist in opening Nancy's eyes to Fenton's true character, and for the moment, at all events, that was the principal object which Colin had in his mind. On reaching the front gate of the surgery he found its owner standing on the doorstep, in the act of bidding good-bye to a patient. Almost simultaneously the latter took his departure, and with a hail of welcome Mark stepped forward to greet him. "The very lad I wanted," was his opening remark. "In fact, I was just going to ring up the hotel and see if I could get hold of you." "I knew you were keen to hear about the inquest," replied Colin, "and, being a gentleman of leisure, I thought I might as well oblige you." Mark drew him into the house, and relieved him of his hat and stick. "Come along upstairs," he whispered. "Nancy's doing the books, and there are half-a-dozen blighters in the waiting room, but I must hear what's happened, even if it ruins the business."