tribe, seizing
the first plausible pretext, was relentless, and insisted on doubting the
word of the Buster. That unfortunate with the puffy face, who seemed to
know his man too well to protract resistance, puffed ahead of us up the
black, oozy court, with myriads of windows made ghastly by the pale
flicker of kerosene lamps in tiers above us, until he came to the last
door but one upon the left side of the court, over which the letter S was
sprawled upon the coping stone. The bullseye had been darkened, and when
the Buster plunged through the doorway he was lost to sight in the
impenetrable darkness beyond. We heard him though, stumbling against
stairs that creaked dismally, and the slide being drawn back, the
friendly light made clear the way for him and us. There was an entry
precisely like the one we had entered before, with a flight of narrow,
almost perpendicular stairs, with so sharp a twist in them that we could
see only half up. The banisters in sight had precisely three uprights,
and looked as if the whole thing would crumble at a touch; while the
stairs were so smooth and thin with the treading of innumerable feet that
they almost refused a foothold. Following the Buster, who grappled with
the steep and dangerous ascent with the daring born of habit, I somehow
got up stairs, wondering how any one ever got down in the dark without
breaking his neck. Thinking it possible there might be a light sometimes
to guide the pauper hosts from their hazardous heights to the stability
of the street, I inquired as to the fact, only to meet the contempt of
the Buster for the gross ignorance that could dictate such a question.
'A light for the stairs! Who'd give it? Sweeney? Not much! Or the
tenants? Skasely! Them's too poor!' While he muttered, the Buster had
pawed his way up stairs with surprising agility, until he reached a door
on the third landing. Turning triumphantly to the detective, he
announced: 'Here's where I lodges, Jimmy! You knows I wouldn't lie to
yez.'

"'We'll see whether you would or no,' said Finn, tapping on the door.
Being told to come in, he opened it; and on this trivial but dexterous
pretext we invaded the sanctity of a home.

"No tale is so good as one plainly told, and I tell precisely what I saw.
This home was composed, in the parlance of the place, of a 'room and
bedroom.' The room was about twelve feet square, and eight feet from
floor to ceiling. It had two windows opening u