, having suffered the whips and privations of our
peculiar social system, had concluded that his duty to the God which he
conceived lay in aiding his fellow-man. The form of aid which he chose
to administer was entirely original with himself. It consisted of
securing a bed for all such homeless wayfarers as should apply to him at
this particular spot, though he had scarcely the wherewithal to provide
a comfortable habitation for himself. Taking his place amid this
lightsome atmosphere, he would stand, his stocky figure cloaked in a
great cape overcoat, his head protected by a broad slouch hat, awaiting
the applicants who had in various ways learned the nature of his
charity. For a while he would stand alone, gazing like any idler upon an
ever-fascinating scene. On the evening in question, a policeman
passing saluted him as "captain," in a friendly way. An urchin who had
frequently seen him before, stopped to gaze. All others took him for
nothing out of the ordinary, save in the matter of dress, and conceived
of him as a stranger whistling and idling for his own amusement.

As the first half-hour waned, certain characters appeared. Here and
there in the passing crowds one might see, now and then, a loiterer
edging interestedly near. A slouchy figure crossed the opposite corner
and glanced furtively in his direction. Another came down Fifth Avenue
to the corner of Twenty-sixth Street, took a general survey, and hobbled
off again. Two or three noticeable Bowery types edged along the Fifth
Avenue side of Madison Square, but did not venture over. The soldier, in
his cape overcoat, walked a short line of ten feet at his corner, to and
fro, indifferently whistling.

As nine o'clock approached, some of the hubbub of the earlier hour
passed. The atmosphere of the hotels was not so youthful. The air, too,
was colder. On every hand curious figures were moving--watchers and
peepers, without an imaginary circle, which they seemed afraid to
enter--a dozen in all. Presently, with the arrival of a keener sense of
cold, one figure came forward. It crossed Broadway from out the shadow
of Twenty-sixth Street, and, in a halting, circuitous way, arrived close
to the waiting figure. There was something shamefaced or diffident about
the movement, as if the intention were to conceal any idea of stopping
until the very last moment. Then suddenly, close to the soldier, came
the halt.

The captain looked in recognition, but there was no especia