.

"'What do you think of this?' said Finn, throwing the light of his
lantern hither and thither so that every horror might be dragged from the
darkness that all seemed to covet. 'All the thousands living in the
barracks must come here, and just think of all the young ones above that
never did any harm having to take in this stuff;' and the detective
struck out spitefully at the noxious air. As he did so, the gurgling of
water at the Cherry street end of the vault caught his ear, and
penetrating thither, he peered curiously about.

"'I say, Tom,' he called back to his companion, who had remained with me
in the darkness, 'here's a big break in the Croton main.' But a moment
later, in an affrighted voice: 'No, it ain't. Its the sewer! I never
knew of this opening into it before. Paugh! how it smells. That's
nothing up where you are. I'll bet on the undertaker having more jobs in
the house than ever.'

"By this time I began to feel sick and faint in that tainted air, and
would have rushed up the stairs if I could have seen them. But Finn was
exploring that sewer horror with his lantern. As I came down I had seen
a pool of stagnant, green-coated water somewhere near the foot of the
stairs, and, being afraid to stir in the thick darkness, was forced to
call my guide, and, frankly state the urgent necessity for an immediate
return above. The matter-of-fact policeman came up, and cast the
liberating light upon the stairs, but rebuked me as I eagerly took in the
comparatively purer atmosphere from above. 'You can't stand it five
minutes; how do you suppose they do, year in and year out?' 'Even they
don't stand it many years, I should think,' was my involuntary reply.

"As we stepped out into the court again, the glare of the bullseye
dragged a strange face out of the darkness. It was that of a youth of
eighteen or twenty years, ruddy, puffed, with the corners of the mouth
grotesquely twisted. The detective greeted the person owning this face
with the fervor of old acquaintanceship: 'Eh, Buster! What's up?'
'Hello, Jimmy Finn! What yez doin' here?' 'Never mind, Buster. What's
up?' 'Why, Jimmy, didn't yez know I lodges here now?' 'No, I didn't.
Where? Who with?' 'Beyant, wid the Pensioner.' 'Go on. Show me where
you lodge.' 'Sure, Jimmy, it isn't me as would lie to yez.'

"But I had expressed a desire to penetrate into some of these kennels for
crushed humanity; and Finn, with the happy acumen of his