inner man; and, after
about a quarter of an hour's search, they found a place in a side-street
which promised to afford what they required. As they were about to
enter, Douglas seized his friend's arm and remarked--

"I say, Terry, I don't know how it strikes you, but this looks to me to
be a very curious sort of place, and the surroundings do not appear
precisely what you might call select. Don't you think we had better go
on a little farther and see whether we cannot find a more respectable-
looking place?"

Terry cast his eyes over the cafe, and up and down the street in which
it was situated. Unlike the rest of the town, everything in this
district seemed to be comparatively quiet, and there were very few
people about, so he shook off his companion's restraining hand and
exclaimed--

"Oh, I don't know, Jim; I think this place looks right enough, and it is
quiet, and that is more than you can say for the other parts of the
town. I think we shall be quite safe in risking it; let us go inside
and see what the proprietor can give us to eat, for, to tell you the
truth, I am most ravenously hungry."

"All right," replied Douglas; "if you don't mind, I am sure I don't; we
ought to be able to take care of ourselves, with the little toys which
we have in our pockets. Come on, then; let's go inside."

The two lads thereupon walked in through the door, and immediately found
themselves in a large room which was filled with little marble-topped
tables, each made to accommodate four persons, while a high counter, on
which were coffee-urns, trays of cakes, flasks of spirits, etcetera, ran
down the whole length of the apartment. Early as was the hour, the
place was very far from being empty; indeed, the lads found, upon
looking round, that nearly every table was occupied, with the exception
of one nearly in the middle of the room, and a second standing in a
somewhat dark corner, close to a door which apparently communicated with
the back premises.

"The place seems pretty full, doesn't it, Terry?" queried Jim, taking a
comprehensive look round. "I should scarcely have expected that there
would have been so many folk about at such an early hour. These people
must have been up all night. Shall we take that table over in the
corner, there? It is out of the way, and I don't feel very much
inclined to take the one in the middle of the room, to be stared at by
everybody in the place. What do you propose to have for bre