f
him?"

The sergeant turned away. "I think," said he, "that the Third Guards
have a full muster now."

THE THIRD GENERATION.

Scudamore Lane, sloping down riverwards from just behind the Monument,
lies at night in the shadow of two black and monstrous walls which loom
high above the glimmer of the scattered gas lamps. The footpaths are
narrow, and the causeway is paved with rounded cobblestones, so that
the endless drays roar along it like breaking waves. A few
old-fashioned houses lie scattered among the business premises, and in
one of these, half-way down on the left-hand side, Dr. Horace Selby
conducts his large practice. It is a singular street for so big a man;
but a specialist who has an European reputation can afford to live
where he likes. In his particular branch, too, patients do not always
regard seclusion as a disadvantage.

It was only ten o'clock. The dull roar of the traffic which converged
all day upon London Bridge had died away now to a mere confused murmur.
It was raining heavily, and the gas shone dimly through the streaked
and dripping glass, throwing little circles upon the glistening
cobblestones. The air was full of the sounds of the rain, the thin
swish of its fall, the heavier drip from the eaves, and the swirl and
gurgle down the two steep gutters and through the sewer grating. There
was only one figure in the whole length of Scudamore Lane. It was that
of a man, and it stood outside the door of Dr. Horace Selby.

He had just rung and was waiting for an answer. The fanlight beat full
upon the gleaming shoulders of his waterproof and upon his upturned
features. It was a wan, sensitive, clear-cut face, with some subtle,
nameless peculiarity in its expression, something of the startled horse
in the white-rimmed eye, something too of the helpless child in the
drawn cheek and the weakening of the lower lip. The man-servant knew
the stranger as a patient at a bare glance at those frightened eyes.
Such a look had been seen at that door many times before.

"Is the doctor in?"

The man hesitated.

"He has had a few friends to dinner, sir. He does not like to be
disturbed outside his usual hours, sir."

"Tell him that I MUST see him. Tell him that it is of the very first
importance. Here is my card." He fumbled with his trembling fingers
in trying to draw one from his case. "Sir Francis Norton is the name.
Tell him that Sir Francis Norton, of Deane Park, must see him