Timothy asked.

"Yes, sir!"

Both men entered. Sir Timothy made his way to the counter, his companion
to a table near, where he took a seat and ordered a drink. Sir Timothy
did the same. He was wedged in between a heterogeneous crowd of shabby,
depressed but apparently not ill-natured men and women. A man in a
flannel shirt and pair of shabby plaid trousers, which owed their
precarious position to a pair of worn-out braces, turned a beery eye
upon the newcomer.

"I'll 'ave one with you, guvnor," he said.

"You shall indeed," Sir Timothy assented.

"Strike me lucky but I've touched first time!" the man exclaimed. "I'll
'ave a double tot of whisky," he added, addressing the barman. "Will it
run to it, guvnor?"

"Certainly," was the cordial reply, "and the same to your friends, if
you will answer a question."

"Troop up, lads," the man shouted. "We've a toff 'ere. He ain't a
'tec--I know the cut of them. Out with the question."

"Serve every one who desires it with drinks," Sir Timothy directed the
barman. "My question is easily answered. Is this the place which a man
whom I understand they call Billy the Tanner frequents?"

The question appeared to produce an almost uncomfortable sensation. The
enthusiasm for the free drinks, however, was only slightly damped, and a
small forest of grimy hands was extended across the counter.

"Don't you ask no questions about 'im, guvnor," Sir Timothy's immediate
companion advised earnestly. "He'd kill you as soon as look at you. When
Billy the Tanner's in a quarrelsome mood, I've see 'im empty this place
and the whole street, quicker than if a mad dog was loose. 'E's a fair
and 'oly terror, 'e is. 'E about killed 'is wife, three nights ago, but
there ain't a living soul as 'd dare to stand in the witness-box about
it."

"Why don't the police take a hand in the matter if the man is such a
nuisance?" Sir Timothy asked.

His new acquaintance, gripping a thick tumbler of spirits and water with
a hand deeply encrusted with the stains of his trade, scoffed.

"Police! Why, 'e'd take on any three of the police round these parts!"
he declared. "Police! You tell one on 'em that Billy the Tanner's on
the rampage, and you'll see 'em 'op it. Cheero, guvnor and don't you get
curious about Billy. It ain't 'ealthy."

The swing-door was suddenly opened. A touslehaired urchin shoved his
face in.

"Billy the Tanner's coming!" he shouted. "Cave, all! He's been 'avin' a
rare to-do in Smi