t squalid part of this foul city. At the corner of a narrow
street he stepped and gave a low whistle. A policeman in plain clothes
came to him directly.

"They are both in the 'Spotted Dog,' sir, with half a dozen more."

"Follow me, and guard the door. Will you come, too, gentlemen?"

The "Spotted Dog" was a low public, with one large room and a sanded
floor. Mr. Ransome walked in and left the door open, so that his three
companions heard and saw all that passed.

"Holland and Cheetham, you are wanted."

"What for?"

"Wilde's affair. He has come to himself, and given us your names."

On this the two men started up and were making for the door. Ransome
whipped before it. "That won't do."

Then there was a loud clatter of rising feet, oaths, threats, and even a
knife or two drawn; and, in the midst of it all, the ominous click of a
pistol, and then dead silence; for it was Ransome who had produced that
weapon. "Come, no nonsense," said he. "Door's guarded, street's guarded,
and I'm not to be trifled with."

He then handed his pistol to the officer outside with an order, and,
stepping back suddenly, collared Messrs. Holland and Cheetham with one
movement, and, with a powerful rush, carried them out of the house in
his clutches. Meantime the policeman had whistled, there was a conflux
of bobbies, and the culprits were handcuffed and marched off to the Town
Hall.

"Five years' penal servitude for that little lot," said Ransome.

"And now, Mr. Bolt, I have answered your question to the best of my
ability."

"You have answered it like a man. Will you do as much for us?"

"I'll do my best. Let me examine the place now that none of them are
about."

Bolt and Ransome went together, but Little went home: he had an anxiety
even more pressing, his mother's declining health. She had taken to
pining and fretting ever since Dr. Amboyne brought the bad news from
Cairnhope; and now, instead of soothing and consoling her son, she
needed those kind offices from him; and, I am happy to say, she received
them. He never spent an evening away from her. Unfortunately he did not
succeed in keeping up her spirits, and the sight of her lowered his own.

At this period Grace Carden was unmixed comfort to him; she encouraged
him to encroach a little, and visit her twice a week instead of once,
and she coaxed him to confide all his troubles to her. He did so; he
concealed from his mother that he was at war with the trade again, but