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 entertaining one another in simple pastimes, were heedless of him. Both Pollyooly and the Lump came to consider a state of siege the most fortunate condition of life.

The next morning there was no red-nosed man. He had not appeared at ten o'clock. But the Honorable John Ruffin was not to be lured carelessly into the open.

"Will you go on a scouting expedition, Pollyooly?" he said.

Pollyooly opened her beautiful blue eyes in a mute question.

"Will you go and hunt the Temple carefully, and a little of Fleet Street, and see that the besieger is not lurking about? I'll mind the Lump—a girl scout should travel unhampered."

"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly eagerly; and she went quickly forth.

Now the absence of the red-nosed watcher on the threshold was brought about by the fact that the night before he had found awaiting him in his little Poplar home an imperative summons to visit Mr. Montague Fitzgerald at his private flat in Mount Street at nine o'clock that morning. He had made