he clothes all. Second-hand watches, marlinspikes,
compasses, spoons, books, boxes, and curiosities crowded the narrow
space, in the midst of which the shrivelled old lady who called herself
proprietress was scarcely visible.

"Come in--don't be afraid," cried she, as the captain paused doubtfully
at the door.

"Is this Number 3, my good woman?"

"Look over the door--'aint you got no eyes?"

"Number 3, Blue Street--this is Blue Street, is it not?"

"If yer doubts it, go and read the name at the end of the street. What
do you want? Clothes or money?"

"Neither--I want information," replied the captain.

"Then yer've come to the wrong shop. Don't sell it 'ere, so clear out.
Do you think I don't know what you're arter?"

"Very well," said the captain, "that will be so much saved. I shall
have to get for nothing what I meant to pay for."

She looked at him doubtfully and growled.

"Why can't yer say what yer want instead of talking gibberish there?"

"If this is Number 3, Blue Street, and you are the same person who was
here five years ago--"

"Go on."

"I may have something to give you from an old lodger; but not till I'm
sure you have a right to it."

"What, _him_?"

"Very likely," said the captain, calmly lighting a cigarette. "I shall
know if you're right, I dare say."

"Right? Do you suppose I'm made of lodgers! 'Aint you talking about
the singing chap--Armstrong he called himself, but at the Hall they
called him Signor something--Francisco or the likes of that."

The captain pricked his ears with a vengeance, and in his eagerness
rattled the keys encouragingly in his trouser pocket.

"That won't do," said he. "I must have come to the wrong place after
all. What sort of looking man was he, and where did he come from?"

"He'd got a pair of arms would knock you into the middle of next week,
and when he went down to the Hall--"

"Which Hall?"

"The `Dragon' Music-Hall--what, don't you know it! go on with you--when
he went there he flashed it with an eye-glass. Lor', you should 'ave
heard him sing! He'd a made your hair curl; it was lovely."

"Ah! he wore an eye-glass and sang, did he?" said the captain. "And
where did he come from, and what became of him when he left you?"

"Come from? I don't know. The other end of the world, I fancy myself.
Where he went to I don't know neither. I fancy myself he took up with a
bad lot at the Hall, and turned me up. Howsomever, I got my dues