Halliday ran for all he was worth from that wicked dwelling. On the high road he saw a body of men approaching, and was certain that here were the police and Laurance coming to save him. Shouting with glee at his escape, he hastened towards them, when he heard a sullen heavy boom like distant thunder. He looked back at The Grange and saw a vast column of smoke towering into the sunlight. Then came a rain of debris. At last the Society of Flies was disbanded, for the house and its wicked inhabitants were shattered into infinitesimal fragments. CHAPTER XXI SUNSHINE After the storm came the calm, and with the spring a realization of Mr. Halliday's hopes with regard to his future. Sir John Moon no longer objected to Dan as the husband of his niece, and was indeed profoundly thankful that she had escaped becoming Lady Curberry. The story of the Society of Flies and the wickedness of Queen Beelzebub and the blowing up of The Grange was a nine days wonder. The papers, for some weeks, were filled with little else, and _The Moment_ almost doubled its circulation when the able pen of Mr. Frederick Laurance set forth the complete story. Halliday became quite a hero, as indeed he was, although he did not appreciate the rewards of his conduct. To be interviewed, to have his portrait, more or less unlike him, in dozens of illustrated papers, to receive offers from music-hall managers, and even proposals of marriage from various enthusiastic ladies, did not appeal to Dan. As soon as he could, he went out of London and took refuge in Sir John's country seat so as to escape publicity. Needless to say, Lillian was there, and Mrs. Bolstreath also. Laurance was due within seven days to be Dan's best man at the June wedding, and with him Mildred was coming at Lillian's special request. Once, twice, and again the owner of the house had heard the story of the late events, and also had read them more or less garbled in different newspapers. Yet he never wearied of the recital, and admired Halliday greatly for the part he had played. From objecting to Dan as a nephew-in-law, the baronet now urgently desired that he should make Lillian Mrs. Halliday. In fact, when he thought of what the young man had saved Lillian from, the uncle of the girl could not do enough for his estimable young friend. So Dan, having become famous, was about to become rich, but neither fame nor wealth appealed to him so much as the undoubted fact that he was on the eve of wedding the girl he adored. "And I think," said Lillian, holding on to Dan as if she feared to lose him, "that you and I would be as happy in a cottage as in a palace. Money is a nuisance, I think, dear." "You say that because you have never experienced the want of it," said Dan, in a sententious manner. All the same he slipped his arm round the girl's slim waist, and kissed her for the pretty sentiment she had expressed relative to a poor but Arcadian existence.