"I may as well explain at once, Mr Huntingdon," he began, "how I came to communicate with you in a way somewhat uncommon.  The fact is, that I have reasons for not wishing to make myself known more than I can help to the good people in these parts.  Now, had I sent you my note by the hand of any messenger, this would have drawn attention to myself, and might have led to inquiries about me which are not just now convenient. I was quite sure that yourself, or some one belonging to you, would be searching up and down the lanes for the little boy, and that his silk handkerchief, placed where I put it, would attract notice, and the note tied up in it be conveyed to yourself without my appearing personally on the scene.  And so it has turned out.  You have read my note, I see; and no one has been in communication with the writer but yourself.  This is as it should be.  And now, may I ask, do you know me? or at any rate, do you guess who I am? for we have not seen each other, I believe, before yesterday evening."