at for a barber.

Looking from his chambers on the other side of the street, that
inevitable Mr. Walker saw the tailor issuing from the perfumer's shop,
and was at no loss to guess that something extraordinary must be in
progress when two such bitter enemies met together.

CHAPTER III. WHAT CAME OF MR WALKER'S DISCOVERY OF THE "BOOTJACK."

It is very easy to state how the Captain came to take up that proud
position at the "Bootjack" which we have seen him occupy on the evening
when the sound of the fatal "Brava!" so astonished Mr. Eglantine.

The mere entry into the establishment was, of course, not difficult. Any
person by simply uttering the words "A pint of beer," was free of the
"Bootjack;" and it was some such watchword that Howard Walker employed
when he made his first appearance. He requested to be shown into a
parlour, where he might repose himself for a while, and was ushered into
that very sanctum where the "Kidney Club" met. Then he stated that the
beer was the best he had ever tasted, except in Bavaria, and in some
parts of Spain, he added; and professing to be extremely "peckish,"
requested to know if there were any cold meat in the house whereof he
could make a dinner.

"I don't usually dine at this hour, landlord," said he, flinging down
a half-sovereign for payment of the beer; "but your parlour looks so
comfortable, and the Windsor chairs are so snug, that I'm sure I could
not dine better at the first club in London."

"ONE of the first clubs in London is held in this very room," said Mr.
Crump, very well pleased; "and attended by some of the best gents in
town, too. We call it the 'Kidney Club'."

"Why, bless my soul! it is the very club my friend Eglantine has so
often talked to me about, and attended by some of the tip-top tradesmen
of the metropolis!"

"There's better men here than Mr. Eglantine," replied Mr. Crump, "though
he's a good man--I don't say he's not a good man--but there's better.
Mr. Clinker, sir; Mr. Woolsey, of the house of Linsey, Woolsey and Co--"

"The great army-clothiers!" cried Walker; "the first house in town!"
and so continued, with exceeding urbanity, holding conversation with Mr.
Crump, until the honest landlord retired delighted, and told Mrs. Crump
in the bar that there was a tip-top swell in the "Kidney" parlour, who
was a-going to have his dinner there.

Fortune favoured the brave Captain in every way. It was just Mr. Crump's
own dinner-hour; and on Mrs. C