hich I was capable.

"Come, then," said she, ushering me without more ado into a den of
discomfort where sat a man with a great beard and such heavy overhanging
eyebrows that I could hardly detect the twinkle of his eyes, keen and
incisive as they were.

Smiling upon him, but not in the same way I had upon the girl, I glanced
behind me at the open door, and above me at the partitions, which failed
to reach the ceiling. Then I shook my head and drew a step nearer.

"I have come," I insinuatingly whispered, "on behalf of a certain party
who left this place in a huff a day or so ago, but who since then has
had time to think the matter over, and has sent me with an apology which
he hopes"--here I put on a diabolical smile, copied, I declare to you,
from the one I saw at that moment on his own lips--"you will accept."

The old wretch regarded me for full two minutes in a way to unmask me
had I possessed less confidence in my disguise and in my ability to
support it.

"And what is this young gentleman's name?" he finally asked.

For reply, I handed him a slip of paper. He took it and read the few
lines written on it, after which he began to rub his palms softly
together with an unction eminently in keeping with the stray glints of
light that now and then found their way through his bushy eyebrows.

"And so the young gentleman had not the courage to come again himself?"
he softly suggested, with just the suspicion of an ironical laugh.
"Thought, perhaps, I would exact too much commission; or make him pay
too roundly for his impertinent assurance."

I shrugged my shoulders, but vouchsafed no immediate reply, and he saw
that he had to open the business himself. He did it warily and with many
an incisive question which would have tripped me up if I had not been
very much on my guard; but it all ended, as such matters usually do, in
mutual understanding, and a promise that if the young gentleman was
willing to sign a certain paper, which, by the way, was not shown me, he
would in exchange give him an address which, if made proper use of,
would lead to my patron finding himself an independent man within a very
few days.

As this address was the one thing I was most desirous of obtaining, I
professed myself satisfied with the arrangement, and proceeded to hunt
up my patron, as he was called. Informing him of the result of my visit,
I asked if his interest in ferreting out these criminals was strong
enough to lead him to si