The Admirable Tinker

The Admirable Tinker, by Edgar
Jepson

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Title: The Admirable Tinker Child of the World
Author: Edgar Jepson
Illustrator: Margaret Eckerson
Release Date: August 8, 2006 [EBook #19010]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
ADMIRABLE TINKER ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: "Here's my father, or the police!"]

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."
"It ran as near impossibility as anything I can think of," said Sir
Tancred slowly and half dreamily. "But when you are in love with one
another, impossibilities fade--and I was masterful."
"You were that," said Lord Crosland with conviction.
"Poor Pamela! She was wretched at having to keep it from her father;
and I was sorry enough. But it had to be done; when you are eighteen,