pleasant a little plot as ever occurred to a man, most
of whose existence had been spent amid the blameless surroundings
of ladies' hosiery. Half an hour later he was sitting in the dingy
furnished apartments of a friend of his who lived in a small house off
the Walworth Road.

"I want you to do me a favor, Tillotson," he said to the unkempt-looking
tenant.

"I shall be delighted," said Mr. Tillotson, sticking his hands in
his pockets, and warming himself comfortably at a fire-stove ornament
trimmed with red paper roses--"if I can, you know."

"It is a great favor," said Glover.

Mr. Tillotson, looking very despondent, said, of course, that would
please him more.

"I wouldn't ask anybody but you to do it," said the wily Glover. "If
it comes off all right I will get you that berth you asked me for at
Leatham and Roberts'."

"It's coming off, then," said Mr. Tillotson, brightening visibly. "If
you will wait a minute--if the girl is in I will ask her if she will go
and get us something to drink."

"I had better begin at the beginning," said Mr. Glover, as, all the
'ifs' having been triumphantly surmounted, he helped himself from a
small flat bottle of whiskey; "it won't take long."

He lit his pipe, and, plunging into his story, finished it without
interruption.

"You are a deep one, Glover," said his admiring friend when he had
finished. "I thought you had been very smart lately--not but what you
were always a dressy man," he added thoughtfully.

"I believe in keeping my own things to myself," said Glover.

"And this bargee has got the old un," said Tillotson, using the terms
Glover had employed in his narrative. "I don't see what is to be done,
Glover."

"I want to get him away," said the other. "If I can't find him, nobody
else shall, and I want you to help me."

"Go down to Stourwich, tie him up in a sack, and drown him, I suppose,"
said Tillotson, trying to live up to a reputation several lady friends
had bestowed upon him of being sarcastic.

"Can you get away to-morrow?" demanded Glover impatiently.

"I am as free as the birds of the air," responded Tillotson gloomily;
"the only difference is, nobody puts out crumbs for me."

"I can reckon on you, then," said Glover. "I thought I could. We have
known each other a long time, Tillotson. There is nothing like an old
friend when one is in trouble."

Mr. Tillotson assented modestly. "You won't forget about Leatham and
Roberts?" he said.

"Of cou