ttle
hog, stand up and walk," said I, taking him by the ear and keeping my left
ready.

I suppose that the drink suddenly left him weak, for he stood up at once.

"There's some ho--horrible mistake," he began to whimper. "But if the
worst comes to the worst, you'll _adopt_ me, won't you?"

Still holding him by the ear, I led him forth and flung him into the cab,
in a corner of which the trembling Horrex had already huddled himself.
He fell, indeed, across Horrex's knees, and at once screamed aloud.

"Softly, softly, Master 'Erbert," whispered the poor man soothingly.
"It's only poor old Horrex, that you've known since a boy."

"Horrex?" Master Herbert straightened himself up. "Do I understand you
to say, sir, that your name is Horrex? Then allow me to tell you, Horrex,
that you are no gentleman. You hear?" He spoke with anxious lucidity,
leaning forward and tapping the butler on the knee. "No gentleman."

"No, sir," assented Horrex.

"That being the case, we'll say no more about it. I decline to argue
with you. If you're waking, call me early--there's many a black, black
eye, Horrex, but none so black as mine. Call me at eleven-fifteen,
bringing with you this gentleman's blood in a bottle. Goo'-night, go to
bye-bye. . . ."

By the fleeting light of a street-lamp I saw his head drop forward, and a
minute later he was gently snoring.

It was agreed that on reaching home Master Herbert must be smuggled into
the basement of No. 402 and put to rest on Horrex's own bed; also that,
to avoid the line of carriages waiting in the Cromwell Road for the
departing guests, the cab should take us round to the gardens at the back.
I carried on my chain a key which would admit us to these and unlock the
small gate between them and the kitchens. This plan of action so
delighted Horrex that for a moment I feared he was going to clasp my
hands.

"If it wasn't irreverent, sir, I could almost say you had dropped on me
from heaven!"

"You may alter your opinion," said I grimly, "before I've done dropping."

At the garden entrance we paid and dismissed the cab. I took Master
Herbert's shoulders and Horrex his heels, and between us we carried his
limp body across the turf--a procession so suggestive of dark and secret
tragedy that I blessed our luck for protecting us from the casual
intrusive policeman. Our entrance by the kitchen passage, however, was
not so fortunate. Stealthily as we trod, our footsteps reached t