ket and fixed his lamp, the latter so as to
light the opposite wall. Being disencumbered of the basket, London Bill
took the tape and again made his measurements, this time more accurately
than might be done by pacing.

London Bill got to work, breast-high and where the lamplight fell, on
the wall of the drain nearest the Treasury, and with the point of the
pinch-bar began taking out the bricks. Our cracksman worked slowly and
surely, laying the bricks in the bottom of the drain so as to form a
floor on which to stand. In this way he soon found himself above the
water, which thereafter muttered about the bricks instead of his boots,
as was the former uncomfortable condition.

After three hours of toil, the last brick was removed; a circular hole
four feet in diameter showed in the wall of the drain. Beyond was the
earth--gray clay, as Storri had said. Seizing the little spade, London
Bill threw a handful into the water; it was instantly dissolved and
washed away.

"There's current enough," said London Bill, in a satisfied whisper, "to
clear away the dirt as fast as I dig it, which is a chunk of luck my
way."

London Bill, being fairly launched upon his great work, crept into the
drain every night and crept forth every morning, and the hours of his
creeping were respectively eleven and four. Through the day he lay in
convenient, non-inquisitive lodgings, which he cared for himself. London
Bill did not go about the town, having no wish for company, being of the
bloodhound inveterate breed that, once embarked upon an enterprise, does
nothing, thinks nothing, save said enterprise until it is accomplished.
It was this dogged, single-hearted persistency, coupled with his cunning
and his desperate courage, that made London Bill the foremost figure of
his old but criminal guild of 'peter-men.

There was a rich man's son who infested the club; and, being a snob with
a liking for noble nearnesses, Croesus Jr. had wormed himself into
Storri's regards as far as Storri would permit. Croesus Jr., fond of
display, bought a little steam yacht--one hundred tons. After two costly
months of yachting, Croesus Jr., waxing thrifty and bewailing expense,
laid up the yacht in a shipyard on the Harlem River. The yacht's name
was _Zulu Queen_. The _Zulu Queen_ measured one hundred and ten feet
over all, and since she was of unusual beam, her draught was light. In a
beam sea the _Zulu Queen_ would all but roll her stacks overboard; in a
hea