man whose
name Cruden had borrowed for his door-plate, in the hope of further
mystifying the public as to his own personality!

Ah! ah! He might mystify the public, but there was one whose initials
were S.S. whom it would need a cleverer cheat than Cruden Reginald,
Esquire, to mystify!

He listened for a moment at the door, and, hearing no sound, made bold
to enter. Had Reginald been in, he was prepared to represent that,
being on a chance visit to Liverpool, he had been unable to pass the
door of an old neighbour without giving him a friendly call.

But he was not put to this shift, for the room was empty. "Gone out to
his dinner, I suppose," said Sam to himself. "Well, I'll take a good
look round while I am here."

Which he proceeded to do, much to his own satisfaction, but very little
to his information, for scarcely a torn-up envelope was to be found to
reward the spy for his trouble. The only thing that did attract his
attention as likely to be remotely useful was a fragment of a pink paper
with the letters "gerskin" on it--a relic Love would have recognised as
part of the cover of an old favourite, but which to the inquiring mind
of the lawyer appeared to be a document worth impounding in the
interests of justice.

As nobody appeared after the lapse of half an hour, Samuel considered
his time was being wasted, and therefore withdrew. He looked into the
chemist's shop as he went down, but the chemist was not at home; so he
strolled into the greengrocer's next door, and bought an orange, which
he proceeded to consume, making himself meanwhile cunningly agreeable to
the lady who presided over the establishment.

"Fine Christmas weather," said he, looking up in the middle of a
prolonged suck.

"Yes," said the lady.

"Plenty of customers?"

She shrugged her shoulders. Sam might interpret that as he liked.

"I suppose you supply the Corporation next door?" said Sam, digging his
countenance once more into the orange.

"Eh?" said the lady.

"The--what's-his-name?--Mr Reginald--I suppose he deals with you?"

"He did, if you want to know."

"I thought so--a friend of mine, you know."

"Oh, is he?" said the lady, finding words at last, and bridling up in a
way that astonished her cross-examiner; "then the sooner you go and walk
off after him the better!"

"Oh, very well," said Sam. "He's not at home just now, though."

"Oh, ain't he?" said the woman, "that's funny!"

"Why, what do you mean?"