ength reached the place which Gualtier had indicated. He
rang at the door.

A servant came.

"Is this Mr. Gillis's?"

"Yes."

"Is he in?"

"Do you want to see him?"

"Yes."

"What for?"

"Particular business."

"Come in," said the servant; and the boy entered the hall and waited.
In a few moments Mr. Gillis made his appearance. He regarded the boy
carefully from head to foot.

"Come into the parlor," said he, leading the way into a room on the
right. The boy followed, and Mr. Gillis shut the door.

"Well," said he, seating himself, "what is it that you want of me?"

"My father," said the boy, "is a grocer in Blackwall. He got a letter
this morning from a friend of his who stopped here some time back. He
had to go to America of a sudden and left his things, and wants to
get 'em."

"Ah!" said Mr. Gillis. "What is the name of the lodger?"

"Mr. Brown," said the boy.

"Brown?" said Mr. Gillis. "Yes, there was such a lodger, I think; but
I don't know about his things. You wait here a moment till I go and
ask Mrs. Gillis."

Saying this Mr. Gillis left the room. After about fifteen or twenty
minutes he returned.

"Well, my boy," said he, "there are some things of Mr. Brown's here
yet, I believe; and you have come for them? Have you a wagon?"

[Illustration: "He Carefully Instructed Him In The Part He Was To
Perform."]

"No. I only come to see if they were here, and to get your bill."

"And your father is Mr. Brown's friend?"

"Yes'r."

"And Mr. Brown wrote to him?"

"Yes'r."

"Well, you know I wouldn't like to give up the things on an
uncertainty. They are very valuable. I would require some order from
your father."

"Yes'r."

Mr. Gillis asked a number of questions of the boy, to which he
responded without hesitation, and then left the room again, saying
that he would go and make out Mr. Brown's bill.

He was gone a long time. The boy amused himself by staring at the
things in the room, at the ornaments, and pictures, and began to
think that Mr. Gillis was never coming back, when at last footsteps
were heard in the hall, the door opened, and Mr. Gillis entered,
followed by two other men. One of these men had the face of a
prizefighter, or a ticket-of-leave man, with abundance of black hair
and beard; his eyes were black and piercing, and his face was the
same which has already been described as the face of Black Bill. But
he was respectably dressed in black, he wore a beaver hat, an