CHAPTER XXIX 



BON GR]^ — MAL GR]^ 



MoRiARTY, when he left his master, betook him 

 to the stables and his duties. Mr Piper had 

 vacated the stable-yard and was making a tour 

 of the premises, admiring the view from all points, 

 and quite on the alert for strategical moves. 



He was by no manner of means a fool in his 

 profession; watchful as a stoat, unobtrusive, 

 when his mouth was closed, fitting into corners, 

 and unremarkable, he made an excellent bailiff. 



He had always been a careful and saving man, 

 and his character had never been developed by 

 vice. What lay in the subliminal depths of Mr 

 Piper, Mr Piper himself could not say; that unrest 

 lay there was evidenced by his socialistic tendencies. 



He inhabited rooms at Balham or Brixton, I 

 forget which ; he never swore, he never drank, he 

 never smoked or looked at the female population 

 of the British Islands with a view to matrimony 

 or the reverse. His only visible vice was careful- 

 ness, saving. The man was without a visible vice 

 and he had several visible virtues. It was this 

 fact that made the problem of him so interesting 

 and made the attentive student of him pause to 

 ask: " }Vhatjo[idike& him so beastly? " 

 3n 



