[Illustration: "I CALLED HER AND PUT THE QUESTION."]
"But if the cottage is yours," I said, at last, "how came that little
scoundrel----"
"That's just what I have come down to find out," he said. "Now, tell me,
Mr. Oxenham, from whom did you take the cottage?"
"From Mr. Joseph Scorer."
"William, you mean; but that is a detail."
"Joseph," said I. "Stay! I'll show you my agreement," and I went inside
and got it.
"Joseph?" he said, with knitted brow, as he perused the document; and,
after a pause, "Then what the deuce has become of William? What kind of
a man was he?"
"Small, sharp, brown man, with one club foot."
He nodded.
"Which foot?" he asked.