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
place of rendezvous appointed by the old Jew; and when I tell you that
this was no other than the old 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-colored
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 realize 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, when I caught sight of two or three young fellows, who were
lounging on the other side of the fence.

"These were so evidently accomplices that I wondered if the two sly boys
I had engaged to stand by me through this affair had spotted them, and
would know enough to follow them back to their haunts.

"A few minutes later, the old rascal came sneaking towards me, with a
gleam of satisfaction in his half-closed eyes.

"'You are not wanted any longer,' he grunted. 'The young gentleman told
me to say that he could look out for himself now.