got to him.

All that the parents presently learned from the shaking babe, and the
moment Joseph grasped the truth, he left his wife to praise God and got on
his clothes and ran without ceasing to Teddy Pegram's house. And in no
Christmas temper did he run neither, for he'd have well liked, in his
fury, to rob the hangman of a job. The size of the intended crime swept
over him in all its horror as he measured the past and remembered all that
the poacher had said and done; and his feet very near gave under him to
think of what a fellow creature can harbour hid from every other human
eye.

But he wasn't overmuch surprised to find Teddy Pegram didn't answer the
door, nor yet to discover the place was all unlocked. He doubted not that
his awful enemy had departed overnight, and it came out presently that the
last at Little Silver to see Pegram was Ford himself on the previous
evening.

So he left it at that, then, and went home and joined his wife in blessing
the Maker for His mercy and calming the sorrows and terrors of their
little lad.

An unrestful Christmas for the local police, and the countryside was soon
busy over Teddy Pegram, while next day the box of chocolates received
attention and was found so full of venom as the poisoner could pack 'em.

A nine days' wonder and no more, for though the police was so placed they
could soon learn a lot they didn't know about the would-be murderer, the
wretch himself escaped 'em that time. But a very interesting thing threw
light, and when Teddy's cottage came to be hunted over, though not a stick