w minutes brought us to the place of boisterous entertainment, the
lower room of which was suffocatingly full of tipplers and
tobacco-smoke. We nevertheless contrived to edge ourselves in; and my
companion stealthily pointed out the group, who were seated together
near the farther window, and then left me to myself.

The appearance of Jackson entirely answered to the popular prefix of
Flint attached to his name. He was a wiry, gnarled, heavy-browed,
iron-jawed fellow of about sixty, with deep-set eyes aglow with sinister
and greedy instincts. His wife, older than he, and as deaf apparently as
the door of a dungeon, wore a simpering, imbecile look of wonderment, it
seemed to me, at the presence of such unusual and abundant cheer. The
young people who lodged with Jackson were really a very frank, honest,
good-looking couple, though not then appearing to advantage--the
countenance of Henry Rogers being flushed and inflamed with drink, and
that of his wife's clouded with frowns, at the situation in which she
found herself, and the riotous conduct of her husband. Their brief
history was this: They had both been servants in a family living not far
distant from Farnham--Sir Thomas Lethbridge's, I understood--when about
three or four months previous to the present time Flint Jackson, who had
once been in an attorney's office, discovered that Henry Rogers, in
consequence of the death of a distant relative in London, was entitled
to property worth something like L1500. There were, however, some law
difficulties in the way, which Jackson offered, if the business were
placed in his hands, to overcome for a consideration, and in the mean
time to supply board and lodging and such necessary sums of money as
Henry Rogers might require. With this brilliant prospect in view service
became at once utterly distasteful. The fortunate legatee had for some
time courted Mary Elkins, one of the ladies' maids, a pretty,
bright-eyed brunette; and they were both united in the bonds of holy
matrimony on the very day the "warnings" they had given expired. Since
then they had lived at Jackson's house in daily expectation of their
"fortune," with which they proposed to start in the public line.

Finding myself unrecognized, I called boldly for a pot and a pipe, and
after some manoeuvring contrived to seat myself within earshot of
Jackson and his party. They presented a strange study. Henry Rogers was
boisterously excited, and not only drinking freely