signboard,
'G. Goodfellow. Funerals Furnished'--first turning to the right down
the court, and knock three times."

Here he whipped the parcel back into his pocket, picked up his
compasses, and made transparent pretence to be occupied in measuring
distances as Captain Branscome came down the stairs from the garret.

Captain Branscome gave no sign of observing his confusion, but
signalled to me to step outside with him into the alley, where he
pressed an envelope into my hand. By the weight of it, I knew on the
instant that he was returning Mrs. Stimcoe's money,

"And tell her," said he, "that I will come on Monday morning at nine
o'clock as usual."

"Yes, sir."

I turned to go. I could not see his face in the gloom of the alley,
but I had caught one glimpse of it by the lamplight within, and knew
what had detained him upstairs. Honest man, he was starving, and had
been praying up there to be delivered from temptation.

"Brooks," said he, as I turned, "they tell me your father was once a
major in the Army. Is he, by chance, the same Major Brooks--Major
James Brooks, of the King's Own--I had the honour to bring home in
the _Londonderry_, after Corunna?"

"That must have been my father, sir."

"A good man and a brave one. I am glad to hear he is recovered."

I told him in a word or two of my father's health and of his
blindness.

"And he lives not far from here?" I remembered afterwards that his
voice shook upon the question.

I described Minden Cottage and its position on the road towards
Plymouth. He cut me short hurriedly, and remarked, with a nervous
laugh, that he must be getting back to his pupil. Whereat I, too,
laughed.

"Do you think it wrong of me, boy?" he asked abruptly.

"Wrong, sir?"

"He insists upon coming; and he pays me. He will never learn
anything. By the way, Brooks, I have been inhospitable. An apple,
for instance?"

I declared untruthfully that I never ate apples; and perhaps the lie
was pardonable, since by it I escaped eating Captain Branscome's
Sunday dinner.

CHAPTER V.

THE WHALEBOAT.

A barber's pole protruded beside the ope leading to Captain Coffin's
lodgings. It was painted in spirals of scarlet and blue, and at the
end of it a cage containing a grey parrot dangled over the footway.

"Drunk again!" screamed the parrot, as I hesitated before the
entrance, for the directing-marks just here were so numerous as to be
perplexing. To the right of th