and of the back of a
by-no-means-smartly-dressed barmaid--who might have been stone deaf
for all notice she took of his entrance--standing on a stool
behind the bar dusting and polishing the woodwork of the shelves. The
door of the bar parlour was open, and through it Narkom caught a
glimpse of a bent-kneed, stoop-shouldered, doddering old man
shuffling about, filling match-boxes, wiping ash trays, and carefully
refolding the rumpled newspapers that lay on the centre table.
That he was not the proprietor, merely a waiter, the towel over his
arm, the shabby old dress coat, the baggy-kneed trousers would
have been evidence enough without that added by the humble tasks
he was performing.

"Poor devil! And at his age!" said Narkom to himself, as he noted the
pale, hopeless-looking, time-worn face and the shuffling, time-bent
body; then, moved by a sense of keen pity, he walked into the room
and spoke gently to him.

"Tea for two, uncle--at a quarter-past five to the tick if you can
manage it," he said, tossing the old man a shilling. "And say to the
landlady that I'd like to have exclusive use of this room for an hour
or two, so she can charge the loss to my account if she has to turn
any other customers away."

"Thanky, sir. I'll attend to it at once, sir," replied the old
fellow, pocketing the coin, and moving briskly away to give the
order. In another minute he was back again, laying the cloth and
setting out the dishes, while Narkom improved the time of waiting by
straying round the room and looking at the old prints and cases of
stuffed fishes that hung on the oak-panelled walls.

It still wanted a minute or so of being a quarter-past five when
the old man bore in the tea tray itself and set it upon the waiting
table; and, little custom though the place enjoyed, Narkom could
not but compliment it upon its promptness and the inviting quality
of the viands served.

"You may go," he said to the waiter, when the man at length bowed low
and announced that all was ready; then, after a moment, turning
round and finding him still shuffling about, "I say you may go!"
he reiterated, a trifle sharply. "No, don't take the cosy off the
teapot--leave it as it is. The gentleman I am expecting has not
arrived yet, and--look here! will you have the goodness to let
that cosy alone and to clear out when I tell you? By James! if you
don't----Hullo! What the dickens was that?"

"That" was undoubtedly the tingle of a handful of gra