classed it with pink rats and other abnormalities. In reply to Mrs.
Blows's request for the capital sum, they expressed astonishment that she
could be willing to tear herself away from the hero's grave, and spoke of
the pain which such an act on her part would cause him in the event of
his being conscious of it. In order to show that they were reasonable
men, they allowed her an extra shilling that week.

The hero threw the dole on the bedroom floor, and in a speech bristling
with personalities, consigned the committee to perdition. The
confinement was beginning to tell upon him, and two nights afterward,
just before midnight, he slipped out for a breath of fresh air.

It was a clear night, and all Gravelton with one exception, appeared to
have gone to bed. The exception was Police-constable Collins, and he,
after tracking the skulking figure of Mr. Blows and finally bringing it
to bay in a doorway, kept his for a fort-night. As a sensible man, Mr.
Blows took no credit to himself for the circumstance, but a natural
feeling of satisfaction at the discomfiture of a member of a force for
which he had long entertained a strong objection could not be denied.

Gravelton debated this new appearance with bated breath, and even the
purblind committee of the Camels had to alter their views. They no
longer denied the supernatural nature of the manifestations, but, with
a strange misunderstanding of Mr. Blows's desires, attributed his
restlessness to dissatisfaction with the projected tombstone, and, having
plenty of funds, amended their order for a plain stone at ten guineas to
one in pink marble at twenty-five.

"That there committee," said Mr. Blows to his wife, in a trembling voice,
as he heard of the alteration--"that there committee seem to think that