of his black cigars until nearly midnight. Then, well
contented with himself, he went up the bare, dirty stairs to his room
and went to bed, and, despite the excitement of the evening, was soon
in a loud slumber, from which he was aroused by a distant and sustained
knocking.

CHAPTER II.

At first the noise mingled with his dreams, and helped to form them.
He was down a mine, and grimy workers with strong picks were knocking
diamonds from the walls, diamonds so large that he became despondent at
the comparative smallness of his own. Then he awoke suddenly and sat up
with a start, rubbing his eyes. The din was infernal to a man who liked
to do a quiet business in an unobtrusive way. It was a knocking which he
usually associated with the police, and it came from his side door.
With a sense of evil strong upon him, the Jew sprang from his bed, and,
slipping the catch, noiselessly opened the window and thrust his head
out. In the light of a lamp which projected from the brick wall at the
other end of the alley he saw a figure below.

"Hulloa!" said the Jew harshly.

His voice was drowned in the noise.

"What do you want?" he yelled. "Hulloa, there! What do you want, I say?"

The knocking ceased, and the figure, stepping back a little, looked up
at the window.

"Come down and open the door," said a voice which the pawnbroker
recognized as the sailor's.

"Go away," he said, in a low, stern voice. "Do you want to rouse the
neighborhood?"

"Come down and let me in," said the other. "It's for your own good.
You're a dead man if you don't."

Impressed by his manner the Jew, after bidding him shortly not to make
any more noise, lit his candle, and, dressing hurriedly, took the light
in his hand and went grumbling downstairs into the shop.

"Now, what do you want?" he said through the door.

"Let me in and I'll tell you," said the other, "or I'll bawl it through
the keyhole, if you like."

The Jew, placing the candle on the counter, drew back the heavy bolts
and cautiously opened the door. The seaman stepped in, and, as the other
closed the door, vaulted on to the counter and sat there with his legs
dangling.

"That's right," he said, nodding approvingly in the direction of the
Jew's right hand. "I hope you know how to use it."

"What do you want?" demanded the other irritably, putting his hand
behind him. "What time o' night do you call this for turning respectable
men out of their beds?"

"I didn't co