der. He leaned farther over and strained his
eyes to see some gleam of water through the yellowness. But it was not
to be done. He was thinking the inevitable thing, of course; but such a
plunge would not do for him. The other thing would destroy all traces.

As he drew back he heard something fall with the solid tinkling sound of
coin on the flag pavement. When he had been in the pawnbroker's shop he
had taken the gold from his purse and thrust it carelessly into his
waistcoat pocket, thinking that it would be easy to reach when he chose
to give it to one beggar or another, if he should see some wretch who
would be the better for it. Some movement he had made in bending had
caused a sovereign to slip out and it had fallen upon the stones.

He did not intend to pick it up, but in the moment in which he stood
looking down at it he heard close to him a shuffling movement. What he
had thought a bundle of rags or rubbish covered with sacking--some
tramp's deserted or forgotten belongings--was stirring. It was alive,
and as he bent to look at it the sacking divided itself, and a small
head, covered with a shock of brilliant red hair, thrust itself out, a
shrewd, small face turning to look up at him slyly with deep-set black
eyes.

It was a human girl creature about twelve years old.

"Are yer goin' to do it?" she said in a hoarse, street-strained voice.
"Yer would be a fool if yer did--with as much as that on yer."

She pointed with a reddened, chapped, and dirty hand at the sovereign.

"Pick it up," he said. "You may have it."

Her wild shuffle forward was an actual leap. The hand made a snatching
clutch at the coin. She was evidently afraid that he was either not in
earnest or would repent. The next second she was on her feet and ready
for flight.

"Stop," he said; "I've got more to give away."

She hesitated--not believing him, yet feeling it madness to lose a
chance.

"MORE!" she gasped. Then she drew nearer to him, and a singular change
came upon her face. It was a change which made her look oddly human.

"Gawd, mister!" she said. "Yer can give away a quid like it was
nothin'--an' yer've got more--an' yer goin' to do THAT--jes cos yer 'ad
a bit too much lars night an' there's a fog this mornin'! You take it
straight from me--don't yer do it. I give yer that tip for the suvrink."

She was, for her years, so ugly and so ancient, and hardened in voice
and skin and manner that she fascinated him.