es all things plain.'

'Baltic,' said Brace, bluntly, 'there is that about you which would make
me sorry to find you a Pharisee or a hypocrite. Therefore, if you
please, we will stop religion and allegory, and come to plain
matter-of-fact. When I knew you in Samoa, you were a sailor without a
ship.'

'Add a castaway and a child of the devil, sir, and you will describe me
as I was then,' burst out Baltic, in his deep voice. 'Hear me, Sir
Harry, and gauge me as I should be gauged. I was, as you know, a
drunken, godless, swearing dog, in the grip of Satan as fuel for hell;
but when you saved my worthless life I saw that it behoved me, as it
does all men, to repent. I sought out a missionary, who heard my story
and set my feet in the right path. I listened to his preaching, I read
the Good Book, and so learned how I could be saved. The missionary made
me his fellow-labourer in the islands, and I strove to bring the poor
heathen to the foot of the cross. For three years I laboured there,
until it was borne in upon me that I was called upon by the Spirit to
labour in the greater vineyard of London. Therefore, I came to England
and looked round to see what task was fittest for my hand. On every
side I saw evil prosper. The wicked, as I noted, flourished like a green
bay tree; so, to bring them to repentance and punishment, I became a
private inquiry agent.'

'Humph! that is a novel kind of missionary enterprise, Baltic.'

'It is a righteous one, Sir Harry. I search out iniquities; I snare the
wicked man in his own nets; I make void the devices of his evil heart.
If I cannot prevent crimes, I can at least punish them by bringing their
doers within the grip of the law. Then when punished by man, they repent
and turn to God, and thereby are saved through their own lusts.'

'Not in many cases, I am afraid. So you regard yourself as a kind of
scourge for the wicked?'

'Yes! When I state that I am a missionary, I regard myself as one who
works in a new way.'

'A kind of _fin-de-siecle_ apostle, in fact,' said Brace, dryly. 'But
isn't the term "missionary" rather a misnomer?'

'No!' replied Baltic, earnestly. 'I do my work in a different way, that
is all. I baffle the wicked, and by showing them the futility of sin,
induce them to lead a new life. I make them fall, only to aid them to
rise; for when all is lost, their hearts soften.'

'You give them a kind of Hobson's choice, I see,' commented Sir Harry,
who was puzzled by