ic ferocity of his expression. In
a minute he was by the side of the man with the skull-cap; and the two
were fighting back to back, amid roars of applause from the audience at
the upper end of the room, who were only spectators of the disturbance.

In the meantime the police had been summoned. But the waiters
down-stairs, in their anxiety to see a struggle between two men on one
side, and somewhere about two dozen on the other, had neglected to close
the street door. The consequence was, that all the cabmen on the stand
outside, and all the vagabond night-idlers in the vagabond neighborhood
of the Snuggery, poured into the narrow passage, and got up an impromptu
riot of their own with the waiters, who tried, too late, to turn them
out. Just as the police were forcing their way through the throng below,
Zack and the stranger had fought their way out of the throng above, and
had got clear of the room.

On the right of the landing, as they approached it, was a door, through
which the man with the skull-cap now darted, dragging Zack after him.
His temper was just as cool, his quick eye just as vigilant as ever.
The key of the door was inside. He locked it, amid a roar of applauding
laughter from the people on the staircase, mixed with cries of "Police!"
and "Stop 'em in the Court!" from the waiters. The two then descended
a steep flight of stairs at headlong speed, and found themselves in a
kitchen, confronting an astonished man cook and two female servants.
Zack knocked the man down before he could use the rolling-pin which he
had snatched up on their appearance; while the stranger coolly took a
hat that stood on the dresser, and jammed it tight with one smack of his
large hand on young Thorpe's bare head. The next moment they were out
in a court into which the kitchen opened, and were running at the top of
their speed.

The police, on their side, lost no time; but they had to get out of the
crowd in the passage and go round the front of the house, before they
could arrive at the turning which led into the court from the street.
This gave the fugitives a start; and the neighborhood of alleys, lanes,
and by-streets in which their flight immediately involved them, was the
neighborhood of all others to favor their escape. While the springing of
rattles and the cries of "Stop thief!" were rending the frosty night air
in one direction, Zack and the stranger were walking away quietly, arm
in arm, in the other.

The man with