The Admirable Tinker Child of the World   By: Edgar Jepson (1863-1938)

THE ADMIRABLE TINKER

CHILD OF THE WORLD

BY EDGAR JEPSON

Illustrated by

Margaret Eckerson

NEW YORK

McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.

MCMIV

Copyright, 1904, by

McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.

Published, March, 1904

Third Impression

COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING CO.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. SIR TANCRED'S QUEST II. THE FINDING OF TINKER III. TINKER ACCEPTS HIS NAME IV. THE TRAINING OF TINKER V. TINKER'S BIRTHDAY BLOODHOUND VI. THE RESCUE OF ELIZABETH KERNABY VII. THE STOLEN FLYING MACHINE VIII. THE BARON AND THE MONEY LENDER IX. TINKER INTERVENES X. TINKER'S FOUNDLING XI. TINKER FROM THE MACHINE XII. TINKER BORROWS A MOTOR CAR XIII. TINKER MEETS HIS OLD NURSE XIV. TINKER TAKES SEPTIMUS RAINER IN HAND XV. TINKER ASSERTS THE RIGHTS OF THE EMPLOYER XVI. TINKER DISOWNS HIS GRANDMOTHER XVII. TINKER AND THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"Here's my father, or the police!" . . . Frontispiece

He surveyed himself with an excited curiosity.

"I can't hold him!"

He poured comforting assurances of safety into her ears.

"She was quite out of control for a good five minutes."

"To night reflect on your misdeeds. To morrow we will treat of your ransom."

The pursuit was lively, but short.

It was his first essay as coiffeur.

As a battering ram against the first and second buttons of his waistcoat.

"Hold it back!" screamed Tinker.

Over these agreeable occupations they talked.

And she paused to let the splendour of the gift sink in.

It's time these lubbers walked the plank.

THE ADMIRABLE TINKER

CHAPTER ONE

SIR TANCRED'S QUEST

"It is," said Lord Crosland, "deucedly odd."

"What?" said Sir Tancred Beauleigh.

"That after seeing nothing of one another for nearly three years, we should arrive at this caravanserai from different stations at the same time, to find that our letters engaging this set of rooms came by the same post."

"It comes of having been born on the same day," said Sir Tancred. "Besides, I always told you that the only possible place to live in in town was the top left hand corner of the Hotel Cecil, with this view up the river, and a nice open breezy space in front of you."

Lord Crosland, who was walking up and down the room as he talked, stopped to gaze out of the window at Westminster, and Sir Tancred lighted another cigarette.

"What I like about it is, it's retired out of the world," said Lord Crosland.

"It was just that recommended it to me."

A waiter came in, and cleared away the breakfast. Lord Crosland admired the view; Sir Tancred lay back in his easy chair, gazing with vacant, sombre eyes into the clear blue vault of the summer sky.

"I can't see why we shouldn't share these rooms for the season," said Lord Crosland, when the waiter had gone with his tray. "We shall get on all right; we always did at Vane's."

"Well," said Sir Tancred slowly, "I have a child, a boy, somewhere I don't know where. I've got to find him. I'm going to find him before I do anything else."

"The deuce you have! Well, I'll be shot! To think that you're married!"

"I was married when I said good bye to you nearly three years ago," said Sir Tancred. "I was married to Pamela Vane."

"You were married to Miss Vane!" cried Lord Crosland. "But how how on earth did you manage it? It was impossible!"

"I committed that legal misdemeanour known as false entry," said Sir Tancred coolly. "I added the necessary years to our ages."

"Oh, yes, that, of course," said Lord Crosland. "You wouldn't let an informality of that kind stand in your way. But Miss Vane? How did you persuade her? I should have thought it impossible absolutely impossible."