hen he slowly sank down from his
chair, supposed that he was drunk. Used never to be so drunk that he
could not walk or stand, at any rate by supporting himself or holding on
to convenient, firm things.

This last piece of evidence was deposed to by several of the regular
customers, or as they were described in the police report--"Several of
the regular visitors to the refreshment-room, whose testimony may be
considered as thoroughly reliable."

Several of these silent, somewhat tottering, figures who had been thus
aroused from their dull, Saturday evening drowsiness, had already
disappeared from the scene. Bottles and glasses remained standing with
their contents.

"Might there not possibly be some other direct or indirect cause?"

It was at first hesitatingly that Mrs. Selvig could think of anything of
the sort.

Unwilling as she was to go to extremes with an old, regular customer,
she yet had been obliged this evening to give him to understand that
whatever he required in future must be paid for in cash. His bill had
now, after all the years he had enjoyed credit in the tap-room, grown so
enormous, that she, a widow with two daughters, could no longer feel
justified in letting it run on. During all the years he had frequented
her house, she had faithfully kept her word never to send a bill home to
his house. But a bill cannot lie for ever on the threshold, as the
police know. That is the way of the world: it is the same for one as it
is for the other--so it must just be got by a distress warrant. That was
what she had said to him, unwilling though she had been to do so, and so
unpleasant, she could truthfully say, as it was to disturb such a quiet,
decent man.

It was high time to rid the bar of its encumbrance. The public-house
bear had hunted up a hand-barrow, but had to get a couple more men to
help carry. And they must have a proper contrivance with a cloth over,
so that the whole thing would look like a hospital stretcher--a dead man
with nothing but a tablecloth over him would make too great a commotion
out in the street!

It was something of this kind that Mrs. Selvig and her daughters were
busy looking out and putting together, out of some green bed-hangings.
One's good name is dear to every one, and Mrs. Selvig felt that what had
just taken place was a blow to the house.

It was now nearly dark in the tap-room. Holman's dark figure had been
moved on to the stretcher, which stood on the floor ready