rsuade myself that this was not a dream! We will stay here until he
leaves, and then we will follow him and prove beyond a doubt that this
is a real man and not the vision of an overheated brain. We will follow
him, I say, and if he is really flesh and blood, and not a poor ghost,
we will help him, you and I. Poor old man! How sad he looks! And no
wonder! You don't know of what I robbed him!"

David had now grown more quiet, and they stood patiently waiting for the
time to come when the old beggar should leave his post and retire to his
home, if home he had.

At last he received his signal for departure. A shadow fell from the
roof of the tall building opposite, upon the pupil of an eye, which
perhaps felt the darkness it could not see. The building was his dial.
Like millions of his fellow creatures, he measured life by advancing
shadows.

He arose, and in his mien and movements there was a certain majesty.
Placing his hat upon his storm-beaten head, he folded the camp-chair
under his arm, took the leading string in his hand and followed the
little dog, who began picking his way with fine care through the surging
crowd.

Behind him at a little distance walked the two gamblers, pursuing him
like a double shadow. A bloodhound could not have been more eager than
David was. He trembled if an omnibus cut off his view for a single
instant, and shuddered if the beggar turned a corner.

Unconscious of all this, the dog and his master wended their way
homeward. They crawled slowly and quietly across a street over which
thundered an endless procession of vehicles; they moved like snails
through the surf of the ocean of life. Arriving at length at the door of
a wretched tenement house, the blind man and his dog entered.

As he noted the squalor of the place, David murmured to himself, "Poor
old man! How low he has fallen!"

Several minutes passed in silence, while he stood reflecting on the
doctor's misery, his own new happiness and the opportunities and duties
which the adventure had opened and imposed. At last he said to his
friend, "Do you know where we are? I was so absorbed that I didn't
notice our route at all."

"Yes," Mantel answered. "I have marked every turn of the way."

"Could you find the place again?"

"Without the slightest difficulty."

"Be sure, for if you wish to help me, as I think you do, you will have
to come often. I have made my plans in the few moments in which I have
been standing here, and