n; another stage of his escape was
fortunately ended--he began to spy blue water. He called a railway
porter, and bade him carry the portmanteau to the cloak-room: not that
he had any notion of delay; flight, instant flight, was his design, no
matter whither; but he had determined to dismiss the cabman ere he
named, or even chose, his destination, thus possibly baulking the
Judicial Error of another link. This was his cunning aim, and now with
one foot on the roadway, and one still on the coach-step, he made haste
to put the thing in practice, and plunged his hand into his
trousers-pocket.

There was nothing there!

O, yes; this time he was to blame. He should have remembered, and when
he deserted his blood-stained pantaloons, he should not have deserted
along with them his purse. Make the most of his error, and then compare
it with the punishment. Conceive his new position, for I lack words to
picture it; conceive him condemned to return to that house, from the
very thought of which his soul revolted, and once more to expose himself
to capture on the very scene of the misdeed: conceive him linked to the
mouldy cab and the familiar cabman. John cursed the cabman silently, and
then it occurred to him that he must stop the incarceration of his
portmanteau; that, at least, he must keep close at hand, and he returned
to recall the porter. But his reflections, brief as they had appeared,
must have occupied him longer than he supposed, and there was the man
already returning with the receipt.

Well, that was settled; he had lost his portmanteau also; for the
sixpence with which he had paid the Murrayfield Toll was one that had
strayed alone into his waistcoat-pocket, and unless he once more
successfully achieved the adventure of the house of crime, his
portmanteau lay in the cloak-room in eternal pawn, for lack of a penny
fee. And then he remembered the porter, who stood suggestively
attentive, words of gratitude hanging on his lips.

John hunted right and left; he found a coin--prayed God that it was a
sovereign--drew it out, beheld a halfpenny, and offered it to the
porter.

The man's jaw dropped.

"It's only a halfpenny," he said, startled out of railway decency.

"I know that," said John piteously.

And here the porter recovered the dignity of man.

"Thank you, sir," said he, and would have returned the base gratuity.
But John, too, would none of it; and as they struggled, who must join in
but the cabman?

"