The two brothers had to appear before the Bench on Monday. As it chanced Mr. Pigott, Colonel Lewknor and Mr. Trupp were the only magistrates present.

Ernie, who appeared with his head bandaged, admitted his mistake.

"Went to pass the time o day with my brother," he said. "And all he done was to lean out of the window and crash the crockery down on the roof o me head. Did upset me a bit, I admit."

"He meant murder all right," was Alf\'s testimony, sullenly given. "He knows that."

Joe corroborated Ernie\'s statement.

He had been in the Saffrons on Saturday afternoon and had seen Ernie coming down the hill from Old Town. Having a message to give him he had started to meet him. Ernie had gone up the steps of his brother\'s house; and as he did so, Alf had leaned out of the upper window and thrown a jug down on his brother.

Alf\'s solicitor cross-examined the engineer at some length.

"What were you doing on the Saffrons?"

"Watching the football."

"You were watching the football; and yet you saw Caspar coming down Church Street?"

"I did."

"I suggest that you did nothing of the sort; and that you only appeared on the scene at the last moment."

"Well," retorted Joe, good-humouredly. "A don\'t blame you for that. It\'s what you\'re paid to suggest."

A witness who was to have given evidence for Alf did not appear; and the Bench agreed without retiring. Neither of the brothers had been up before the magistrates before and both were let off with a caution, Ernie having to pay costs.

"Your tongue\'s altogether too long, Alfred Caspar," said Mr. Pigott, the Chairman, and added—quite unjudicially—"always was. And you\'re altogether too free with your fists, Ernest Caspar."

Ernie left the court rejoicing; for he knew he had escaped lightly. Outside he waited to thank his friend for his support.

"Comin up along?" he coaxed.

"Nay, ma lad," retorted the engineer with the touch of brutality which not seldom now marked his intercourse with the other. "You must face the missus alone. Reck\'n A\'ve done enough for one morning."

Ern went off down Saffrons Road in the direction of Old Town, crest-fallen as is the man whose little cocoon of self-defensive humbug has suddenly been cleft by a steel blade.

Joe marched away down Grove Road. Alf caught him up. The little chauffeur was smiling that curds-and-whey smile of his.

"Say, Burt!—you aren\'t half a liar, are you?" he whispered.

Joe grinned genially.

"The Church can\'t have it all to herself," he said. "Leave a few of the lies to the laity."

Ern trudged back from the Town Hall, across Saffrons Croft, to the Moot, in unenviable mood; for he was afraid, and he had cause.

Ruth was who standing in the door came stalking to meet him, holding little Alice by the hand.

Ern slouched up with that admixture of bluff, lordly insouciance, and aggrieved innocence that is the honoured defence of dog and man alike on such occasions.

"You\'ve done us," she said almost vengefully.

"What are I done then?" asked the accused, feigning abrupt indignation.

Ruth dismissed the child, and turned on Ernie.

"Got us turn into the street—me and my babies," she answered, splendidly indignant. "A chap\'s been round arter the house, while you was up before the beaks settlin whether you were for Lewes Gaol or not. Says Alf\'s let it him a week from Saraday, and we got to go. I wouldn\'t let him in."

"Ah," said Ernie stubbornly, "don\'t you worry. Alf\'s got to give us notice first. And he daren\'t do that."

Ruth was not to be appeased.

"Why daren\'t he, then?" she asked.

"I\'ll tell you for why," answered Ernie. "He\'s goin up before the Watch Committee come Thursday to get his licence for his blessed Touring Syndicate. We\'ve friends on that Committee, good friends—Mr. Pigott, and the Colonel, not to say Mr. Geddes; and Alf knaws it. He ain\'t goin to do anythink to annoy them just now. Knaws too much, Alf do."

Ruth was not convinced.

"We got no friends," she said sullenly. "We shall lose em all over this. O course we shall, and I don\'t blame em. A fair disgrace on both of you, I call it. You\'re lucky not to have to do a stretch. And as to Alf, they\'ve sack him from sidesman over it, and he\'ll never forgive us."

They were walking slowly back to the cottage, the man hang-dog, the woman cold.

Outside the door she paused.

"All I know is this," she said. "If you\'re out again through your own fault I\'m done with it, and I\'ll tell you straight what I shall do, Ern."

She was very quiet.

"What then?"

"I shall leave you with your children and go away with mine." She stood with heaving bosom, immensely moved. "I ca-a\'nt keep the lot. But I can keep one. And you know which one that\'ll be."

Ernie, the colour of dew, went indoors without a word.


The rumour that Alf had been dismissed from his position as sidesman at St. Michael\'s, owing to the incident in the Goffs, was not entirely true, but there was something in it.

The Archdeacon had his faults, but there was no more zealous guardian of the fair fame of the Church and all things appertaining to her.

Alf\'s appearance before the magistrates was discussed at the weekly conference of the staff at the Rectory.

Both Mr. Spink and Bobby Chislehurst were present. The former stoutly defended his protégé, and the Archdeacon heard him out. Then he turned to Bobby.

"What d\'you say, Chislehurst?" he asked.

Bobby, in fact, could say little.

Ernie had no scruples whatever in suggesting what was untrue to the magistrates, who when on the Bench at all events were officials, and to be treated accordingly, but he would never lie to a man who had won his heart. He had, therefore, in answer to the Cherub\'s request given an unvarnished account of what had occurred. Bobby now repeated it reluctantly, but without modification.

"Exactly," said Mr. Spink. "There\'s not a tittle of evidence that Alfred really did say what he\'s accused of saying. And he denies it, point-blank."

"I think I\'d better see him," said the Archdeacon.

Alf came, sore and sulking.

Mottled and sour of eye, he stood before the Archdeacon who flicked the lid of his snuff-box, and asked whether he had indeed made the remark attributed to him.

"I never said nothing of the sort," answered Alf warmly, almost rudely. "Is it likely? me own sister-in-law and all! See here!" He pr............