remember all that?"

George pinched his arm encouragingly, and Sweetwater, with an amused
grunt, softly unlatched the window and pulled it wide open.

A fine sleet flew in, imperceptible save for the sensation of damp it
gave, and the slight haze it diffused through the air. Enlarged by this
haze, the building they were set to watch rose in magnified proportions
at their left. The yard between, piled high in the centre with
snow-heaps or other heaps covered with snow, could not have been more
than forty feet square. The window from which they peered, was half-way
down this yard, so that a comparatively short distance separated them
from the porch where George had been told to look for the man he was
expected to identify. All was dark there at present, but he could hear
from time to time some sounds of restless movement, as the guard posted
inside shifted in his narrow quarters, or struck his benumbed feet
softly together.

But what came to them from above was more interesting than anything to
be heard or seen below. A man's voice, raised to a wonderful pitch by
the passion of oratory, had burst the barriers of the closed hall in
that towering third storey and was carrying its tale to other ears than
those within. Had it been summer and the windows open, both George and
Sweetwater might have heard every word; for the tones were exceptionally
rich and penetrating, and the speaker intent only on the impression he
was endeavouring to make upon his audience. That he had not mistaken his
power in this direction was evinced by the applause which rose from
time to time from innumerable hands and feet. But this uproar would
be speedily silenced, and the mellow voice ring out again, clear and
commanding. What could the subject be to rouse such enthusiasm in the
Associated Brotherhood of the Awl, the Plane and the Trowel? There was a
moment when our listening friends expected to be enlightened. A shutter
was thrown back in one of those upper windows, and the window hurriedly
raised, during which words took the place of sounds and they heard
enough to whet their appetite for more. But only that. The shutter
was speedily restored to place, and the window again closed. A wise
precaution, or so thought George if they wished to keep their doubtful
proceedings secret.

A tirade against the rich and a loud call to battle could be gleaned
from the few sentences they had heard. But its virulence and pointed
attack was not that of the