seemed to be nothing on his mind
except the vagaries of the weather, concerning which he was a great
conversationalist. But now moodiness had claimed him for its own.
After a short and melancholy "Good morning," he turned to the task of
measuring out the tobacco in silence.

Archie's sympathetic nature was perturbed.--"What's the matter, laddie?"
he enquired. "You would seem to be feeling a bit of an onion this bright
morning, what, yes, no? I can see it with the naked eye."

Mr. Blake grunted sorrowfully.

"I've had a knock, Mr. Moffam."

"Tell me all, friend of my youth."

Mr. Blake, with a jerk of his thumb, indicated a poster which hung on
the wall behind the counter. Archie had noticed it as he came in, for
it was designed to attract the eye. It was printed in black letters on a
yellow ground, and ran as follows:

CLOVER-LEAF SOCIAL AND OUTING CLUB

GRAND CONTEST

PIE-EATING CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WEST SIDE

SPIKE O'DOWD
(Champion)

v.

BLAKE'S UNKNOWN

FOR A PURSE OF $50 AND SIDE-BET

Archie examined this document gravely. It conveyed nothing to him
except--what he had long suspected--that his sporting-looking friend had
sporting blood as well as that kind of exterior. He expressed a kindly
hope that the other's Unknown would bring home the bacon.

Mr. Blake laughed one of those hollow, mirthless laughs.

"There ain't any blooming Unknown," he said, bitterly. This man had
plainly suffered. "Yesterday, yes, but not now."

Archie sighed.

"In the midst of life--Dead?" he enquired, delicately.

"As good as," replied the stricken tobacconist. He cast aside his
artificial restraint and became voluble. Archie was one of those
sympathetic souls in whom even strangers readily confided their most
intimate troubles. He was to those in travail of spirit very much what
catnip is to a cat. "It's 'ard, sir, it's blooming 'ard! I'd got the
event all sewed up in a parcel, and now this young feller-me-lad 'as to
give me the knock. This lad of mine--sort of cousin 'e is; comes from
London, like you and me--'as always 'ad, ever since he landed in this
country, a most amazing knack of stowing away grub. 'E'd been a bit
underfed these last two or three years over in the old country, what
with food restrictions and all, and 'e took to the food o