_I'll_ look after him!" "Will ye now ?" and Peke's rugged features visibly brightened--"That's just like ye, Miss! Aint it, Tom?
Aint it, Bill ?" Both individuals appealed to agreed that it was "Miss Tranter all over." "Now off to bed with you!" proceeded that lady peremptorily.

"And leave your collected 'fund' with me--I'll give it to him." But Tom o' the Gleam would not hear of this.
"No, Miss Tranter!--with every respect for you, no!" he said gaily.
"It's not every night we can play angels! I play angel to my kiddie sometimes, putting a fairing in his little hammock where he sleeps like a bird among the trees all night, but I've never had the chance to do it to an old grandad before! Let me have my way!" And so it chanced that at about half-past eleven, Helmsley, having lain down with a deep sense of relief and repose on his clean comfortable little bed, was startled out of his first doze by hearing stealthy steps approaching his door.

His heart began to beat quickly,--a certain vague misgiving troubled him,--after all, he thought, had he not been very rash to trust himself to the shelter of this strange and lonely inn among the wild moors and hills, among unknown men, who, at any rate by their rough and uncouth appearance, might be members of a gang of thieves?
The steps came nearer, and a hand fumbled gently with the door handle.

In that tense moment of strained listening he was glad to remember that when undressing, he had carefully placed his vest, lined with the banknotes he carried, under the sheet on which he lay, so that in the event of any one coming to search his clothes, nothing would be found but a few loose coins in his coat pocket.

The fumbling at his door continued, and presently it slowly opened, letting in a pale stream of moonlight from a lattice window outside.