196 Seventy Years a Master. 



enjoying a cigar at my gate, when I saw 



*' Putty " A , a well-known local character 



come swinging along the Biggleswade and 

 Potton road. While he was some little 

 distance off I perceived that he had been 

 drinking again — for Putty had periodical out- 

 bursts. He gave me '' Good-day " civil 

 enough, and, of course, I replied to him 

 kindly. Putty stopped, and then I guessed 

 from the working of his face and other signs 

 of excitement, that somebody had been having 

 a game with him. 



'' Well, Putty," said I, '' What is it ? " 



" I'm going over to Potton," he said, '* to 

 see Lawyer Chapman." 



''Yes," I said, "and what's up between 

 you and Lawyer Chapman ? " 



'' He's got a lot of money of mine," Putty 

 continued somewhat sullenly — '' and I'm going 

 to have it, or I'll let Lawyer Chapman know 

 why," he suddenly blazed out. 



I began to see the drift of things. That 

 was a mania with Putty. He was always 

 under the delusion that somebody had got a 



