ering at the incongruous medley of penny pipes, black tobacco,
sweets, newspapers, and comic songs which here and there jostled one
another in the short compass of a single window. I think it was a cold
shudder that suddenly passed through me that first told me that I had
found what I wanted. I looked up from the pavement and stopped before
a dusty shop, above which the lettering had faded, where the red bricks
of two hundred years ago had grimed to black; where the windows had
gathered to themselves the dust of winters innumerable. I saw what I
required; but I think it was five minutes before I had steadied myself
and could walk in and ask for it in a cool voice and with a calm face.
I think there must even then have been a tremor in my words, for the
old man who came out of the back parlour, and fumbled slowly amongst
his goods, looked oddly at me as he tied the parcel. I paid what he
asked, and stood leaning by the counter, with a strange reluctance to
take up my goods and go. I asked about the business, and learnt that
trade was bad and the profits cut down sadly; but then the street was
not what it was before traffic had been diverted, but that was done
forty years ago, 'just before my father died,' he said. I got away at
last, and walked along sharply; it was a dismal street indeed, and I
was glad to return to the bustle and the noise. Would you like to see
my purchase?"

Austin said nothing, but nodded his head slightly; he still looked
white and sick. Villiers pulled out a drawer in the bamboo table, and
showed Austin a long coil of cord, hard and new; and at one end was a
running noose.

"It is the best hempen cord," said Villiers, "just as it used to be
made for the old trade, the man told me. Not an inch of jute from end
to end."

Austin set his teeth hard, and stared at Villiers, growing whiter as he
looked.

"You would not do it," he murmured at last. "You would not have blood
on your hands. My God!" he exclaimed, with sudden vehemence, "you
cannot mean this, Villiers, that you will make yourself a hangman?"

"No. I shall offer a choice, and leave Helen Vaughan alone with this
cord in a locked room for fifteen minutes. If when we go in it is not
done, I shall call the nearest policeman. That is all."

"I must go now. I cannot stay here any longer; I cannot bear this.
Good-night."

"Good-night, Austin."

The door shut, but in a moment it was open again, and Austin stood,
white and gha