ill.

Immediately after supper he took his way to the place appointed for the
meeting. This civil officer had been a companion of the quack's for many
years. His natural capacity, which was of the highest order, had secured
him one place of honor after another; but he had lost them through the
practice of many vices, and had at last sunk to that depth of
degradation in which he was willing to barter his honor for almost any
price.

The place at which he had agreed to meet David was a low saloon in one
of the most disreputable parts of the city, and to this spot the
infatuated youth made his way. Now that he was alone with his thoughts,
he could not contemplate his purpose without a feeling of dread, and yet
he did not pause nor seriously consider its abandonment. His movements,
as he elbowed his way among the outcasts who infested this degraded
region, were those of a man totally oblivious to his surroundings.

"Curse him," he muttered in an undertone, and did not know that he had
spoken.

To talk to one's self is so often a premonitory symptom of either
insanity or crime, that a policeman standing on the corner eyed him
closely and followed him down the street.

Having reached the door of the saloon, David cast a glance about him, as
if ashamed of being observed, and entered. It was a fitting place to
hatch an evil deed. The floor was covered with filthy sawdust; the air
was rank with the fumes of sour beer and adulterated whisky; the lamps
were not yet lighted, and his eyes blinked as he entered the dirty dusk
of the interior. Against the wall were rude shelves strewn with bottles,
decanters, jugs and glasses. The landlord was leaning against the inside
of the bar glaring about him like an octopus. The habitues of the place,
looking more like scarecrows than men, stood opposite him with their
blear eyes uplifted in ecstasy, draining into their insatiable throats
the last precious drops from their upturned glasses.

At a table four human shapes which seemed to be operated by some kind of
clumsy mechanical motors rather than animated by sentient spirits were
playing a game of chance and slapping the greasy cards down upon the
table to the accompaniment of coarse laughter and hideous profanity.

The Quaker, who was not yet thoroughly enough corrupted to witness this
spectacle without horror, hurried through the room like a man who has
suddenly found himself in a pest-house. The door which he pushed open
admitted