wn, but he showed a laudable desire to fall
in with their schemes, provided always that they included a reasonable
number of visits to places where refreshments could be obtained. From
first to last the expedition was a disappointment. They visited various
smoke-hung dancing halls, decorated for the most part with oleographs
and cracked mirrors, in which sickly-looking young men of unwholesome
aspect were dancing with their feminine counterparts. The attitude of
their guide was alone amusing.

"Say, you want to be careful in here!" he would declare, in an awed
tone, on entering one of these tawdry palaces. "Guess this is one of the
toughest spots in New York City. You stick close to me and I'll make
things all right."

His method of making things all right was the same in every case. He
would form a circle of disreputable youths, for whose drinks Sogrange
was called upon to pay. The attitude of the young men was more dejected
than positively vicious. They showed not the slightest signs of any
desire to make themselves unpleasant. Only once, when Sogrange
incautiously displayed a gold watch, did the eyes of one or two of their
number glisten. The ex-detective changed his place and whispered
hoarsely in his patron's ear:

"Say, don't you flash anything of that sort about here! That young cove
right opposite to you is one of the best-known sneak-thieves in the
city. You're asking for trouble that way."

"If he or any other of them want my watch," Sogrange answered, calmly,
"let them come and fetch it. However," he added, buttoning up his coat,
"no doubt you are right. Is there anywhere else to take us?"

The man hesitated.

"There ain't much that you haven't seen," he remarked.

Sogrange laughed softly as he rose to his feet.

"A sell, my dear friend," he said to Peter. "This terrible city keeps
its real criminal class somewhere else rather than in the show places."

A man who had been standing in the doorway, looking in for several
moments, strolled up to them. Peter recognised him at once and touched
Sogrange on the arm. The new-comer accosted them pleasantly.

"Say, you'll excuse my butting in," he began, "but I can see you are
kind of disappointed. These suckers"--indicating the ex-detective--"talk
a lot about what they're going to show you, and when they get you round,
it all amounts to nothing. This is the sort of thing they bring you to
as representing the wickedness of New York! That's so, Rastall, isn't