, Geoff! She's drowned herself, Geoff! Oh, my God!"
and letting fall the tarpaulin, Spike was shaken suddenly by fierce
hysterical sobbing; whereat the man, looking up from his writing, spoke
harsh-voiced.

"Aw, quit it, Kid, quit it! Here I've just wrote down three rings,
and she's only got one, an' that a cheap fake. Shut up, Kid, you'll
make me drop blots next! Cut it out, it ain't as if she was your
sister--" Hereupon Spike started and lifted a twitching face.

"My sister!" he repeated, "my sister--whatcher mean? My God, Chip,
Hermy could never--come to--that!" And shivering violently, Spike turned
and stumbled out of the shack. Once outside, Ravenslee set his long arm
about him and felt the lad still trembling violently.

"Why, Spike!" said he, "buck up, old fellow!"

"Oh, Geoff, Hermy could never--"

"No, no--of course not!" So very silently, together and side by side,
they crossed the narrow causeway.

"Gee, but I'm cold!" said the boy between chattering teeth as they
turned along the wide avenue, "I--I guess it's shook me some, Geoff.
Y' see, I used to go to school with Maggie once--and now--"

Reaching Mulligan's at last, they beheld numerous groups of whispering
folk who thronged the little court, the doorway, and the hall beyond;
they whispered together upon the stairs and murmured on dim landings.
But as Ravenslee and Spike, making their way through these groups,
mounted upward, they found one landing very silent and deserted, a
landing where was a certain battered door whose dingy panels had been
wetted with the tears of a woman's agony, had felt the yearning,
heartbroken passion of a woman's quivering lips such a very few hours
ago. Remembering which, Geoffrey Ravenslee, turning to look at this
grimy door, beheld it vague and blurred and indistinct as he turned and
climbed that much-trodden stair.

Upon the top landing they found Mrs. Trapes, who leaned over the rails
to greet them.

"So you found that b'y, Mr. Geoffrey. Hermy'll be glad. You'll have
heard of poor little Maggie Finlay? Poor lass--poor, lonely lass! 'T was
her father drove her to it, an' now he's had a fit--a stroke, the
doctor's with him now--an' Hermy, of course! She's always around where
trouble is. I guess there won't be much rest for her to-night--long past
midnight now! I'm glad you found that b'y. I said you would. I'll jest
go down and tell Hermy; she'll be glad."

Spike stood awhile after Mrs. Trapes had gone down-stair