nothing but
ginger-beer for many a long day, and I really believe that I have got my
enemy down at last. It's not a lucrative business, as you may see," he
added with a sad smile, glancing at his threadbare garments, "nor a very
aristocratic one."

"My dear Ned," cried Barret, interrupting, and suddenly thrusting his
hand into his pocket.

"No, Barret, no," said Ned firmly, as he laid his hand on the other's,
arm; "I don't want money; I've given up begging. You gave me your
advice once, and I have taken that--it has been of more value to me than
all the wealth that is being melted into thin air, John, by yonder
fire--"

Ned was interrupted at this point by a burst of laughter from the crowd.
The cause of their mirth was the appearance of a tall, thin, and very
lugubrious-looking man who had come on the bridge to see the fire. He
had got so excited that he had almost fallen over the parapet, and a
policeman had kindly offered to escort him to a place of safety.

"Why, what d'ye mean?--what d'ye take me for?" cried the tall man
angrily; "I'm an honest man; my name is David Boone; I've only come to
see the fire; you've no occasion to lay hold o' _me_!"

"I know that," said the policeman; "I only want to get you out of
danger. Come along now."

Just then a thickset man with a red handkerchief tied round his head
came forward to the stall and demanded a glass of beer. The moment his
eyes encountered those of Boone he became pale as death and staggered
back as if he had received a deadly blow.

"Is that you, Gorman?" cried David, in a voice and with an expression of
amazement.

Gorman did not reply, but gazed at his former friend with a look of
intense horror, while his chest heaved and he breathed laboriously.
Suddenly he uttered a loud cry and rushed towards the river.

Part of the crowd sprang after him, as if with a view to arrest him, or
to see what he meant to do. In the rush Barret and Boone were carried
away.

A few moments later a deep murmur of surprise rose from the thousands of
spectators on the bridge, for a boat was seen to dash suddenly from the
shore and sweep out on the river. It was propelled by a single rower--a
man with a red kerchief tied round his head. The murmur of the crowd
suddenly increased to a shout of alarm, for the man was rowing, his boat
straight towards a mass of tallow which floated and burned on the water.

"Hold on!" "Lookout ahead!" shouted several voices, while ot