d forthwith invaded their house and
dragged them forth with such hideous uproar, that all the neighbours
thought the house must be on fire, and one or two actually went for the
engines.

About eleven we made a halt at a restaurant for supper, at the end of
which, I say it now with bitter shame, I scarcely knew what I was doing.

I remember mildly suggesting that it was time for me to be going home,
and being laughed to scorn and told the fun was only just beginning.
Then presently, though how long afterwards I can't say, I remember being
out in the road and hearing some one propose to ring all the bells down
a certain street, and joining in the assent which greeted the
proposition.

Whether I actually took part in the escapade I was too confused to know,
but I became conscious of Doubleday's voice close beside me crying,
"Look-out, there's a bobby. Run!"

Suddenly called back to myself by the exclamation, I ran as fast as my
legs could carry me. My conscience had reproached me little enough
during the evening's folly, but now in the presence of danger and the
prospect of disgrace, my one idea was what a _fool_ I had been.

Ah! greatest fool of all, that I had never discovered it till now, when
disgrace and ruin stared me in the face. It is easy enough to be
contrite with the policeman at your heels. But I was yet to discover
that real repentance is made of sterner stuff, and needs a hand that is
stronger to save and steadier to direct than any which I, poor blunderer
that I was, had as yet reached out to.

If I could but escape--this once--how I vowed I would never fall into
such folly again!

I ran as if for my life. The streets were empty, and my footsteps
echoed all round till it sounded as if a whole regiment of police were
pursuing me. My companions had all vanished, some one way, some
another. They were used to this sport, but it was new--horribly new to
me. I never thought I _could_ run as I ran that night. I cared not
where I went, provided only I could elude my pursuers. I dared not look
behind me. I fancied I heard shouts and footsteps, and my heart sank as
I listened. Still I bounded forward, along one street, across another,
dodging this way and that way, diving through courts and down alleys,
till at last, breathless and exhausted, I was compelled, if only for one
moment, to halt.

I must have run a mile at the very least. I had never run a mile before
that I knew of, and can safely s