gn the vile document which the pawnbroker would
probably have in readiness for him on the morrow; and being told it was,
we separated for that day, with the understanding that we were to meet
the next morning at the spot chosen by the pawnbroker for the completion
of his nefarious bargain.

Being certain that I was being followed in all my movements by the
agents of this adept in villainy, I took care, upon leaving Mr. L----,
to repair to the hotel of the sporting man I was personifying. Making
myself square with the proprietor I took up my quarters in the room of
my sporting friend, and the better to deceive any spy who might be
lurking about, I received his letters and sent out his telegrams, which,
if they did not create confusion in the affairs of "The Plunger," must
at least have occasioned him no little work the next day.

Promptly at ten o'clock on the following morning I met my patron at the
appointed place of rendezvous; and when I tell you that this was no
other than the ancient and now disused cemetery of which a portion is
still to be seen off Chatham Square, you will understand the uncanny
nature of this whole adventure, and the lurking sense there was in it of
brooding death and horror. The scene, which in these days is disturbed
by elevated railroad trains and the flapping of long lines of
parti-coloured clothes strung high up across the quiet tombstones, was
at that time one of peaceful rest, in the midst of a quarter devoted to
everything for which that rest is the fitting and desirable end; and as
we paused among the mossy stones, we found it hard to realise that in a
few minutes there would be standing beside us the concentrated essence
of all that was evil and despicable in human nature.

He arrived with a smile on his countenance that completed his ugliness,
and would have frightened any honest man from his side at once. Merely
glancing my way, he shuffled up to my companion, and leading him aside,
drew out a paper which he laid on a flat tombstone with a gesture
significant of his desire that the other should affix to it the
required signature.

Meantime I stood guard, and while attempting to whistle a light air, was
carelessly taking in the surroundings, and conjecturing, as best I
might, the reasons which had induced the old ghoul to make use of this
spot for his diabolical business, and had about decided that it was
because he was a ghoul, and thus felt at home among the symbols of
mortality