"Now then! What makes you so late this morning? Didn't I--" And there she
stopped in horror; transfixed; for she was face to face with Mr. Elster.

"Law, sir! _You!_ Mercy be good to us!"

He laughed. In her consternation she could only suppose he had dropped
from the clouds. Giving her a pleasant greeting, he drew her attention to
the appearance that was puzzling him. The woman came out and looked at
it.

"_Is_ it a chimney, Mrs. Capper?"

"Well, yes, sir, it be. Pike have put it in. He come here, nobody knew
how or when, he put himself into the old shed, and has never left it
again."

"Who is 'Pike'?"

"It's hard to say, sir; a many would give a deal to know. He lay in the
shed a bit at first, as it were, all open. Then he boarded up that front
doorway, opened a door at the back, cut out a square hole for a window,
and stuck that chimney in the roof. And there he's lived ever since, and
nobody interferes with him. His name's Pike, and that's all that's known.
I should think my lord will see to it when he comes."

"Does he work for his living?"

"Never does a stroke o' work for nobody, sir. And how he lives is just
one o' them mysteries that can't be dived into. He's a poacher, a snarer,