Transcriber’s Note
This book was first published by Ward, Lock & Co. in 1928. This transcription follows the text of a 1952 reprint by the same publisher. However, where said text contained misspellings, grammatical mistakes, or unambiguously erroneous phrasing (e.g. “in the coarse of his duty”), the 1980 reprint by Charter Books was consulted, and the corrected text was substituted. Any other seeming inconsistencies have been preserved. (In particular, the inconsistent use of spelling and apostrophizing in Orace’s dialogue have been left unaltered.)