set upon the criminal's
capture was his only standard of guilt. He took a real pleasure in the
chase, I imagine, but had no preference for any game in particular, and
was quite indifferent whether the cover he had to draw was a saloon or a
cellar. He would hunt a fraudulent bankrupt or a parricide with equal
zeal, and, when he had caught him, be just as jocularly affable with the
one as with the other. In a drama of life and death, the fierce passions
of the actors were only so many gleams of light showing him where the
right path lay, for which assistance he thanked them heartily. The
foulest mysteries of the sinful human heart touched and shocked him no
more than the evidences of disease do the dissecting surgeon: with both
it was a simple question of defective organization. The possession of
secrets, far less weighty than some that he never told, have made men
look worn, and miserable, and gray; but he would pat his corpulent
leather pocket-book with a self-sufficient satisfaction, scarcely
hinting that the publication of its contents would have caused more
devastation in some well-regulated families than the bursting of a
ten-inch shell in their front drawing-room.

His lips and eyes wore a smile pleasantly significant as he entered,
and, before he could speak, Guy leaped up, waving his hand high in
irrepressible triumph. "I told you so, Frank. I knew we should find him.
Come--come quickly." He was more excited than I had seen him in the last
dozen years.

I exulted too, but I confess a certain repugnance and nervousness
mingled with that feeling: it was a new thing to me to stand face to
face with a murderer.

Neither of us gave as much attention as it deserved to the narrative
with which the officer favored us _en route_, of how he had been
gradually getting the clew to the fugitive's many doublings and
disguises till he came upon his retreat at last. "They mostly make for
home when they're dead beat," he remarked, alluding to Bruce's having
selected London as his final hiding-place.

We soon reached the spot--one of those dreary by-ways that trend
westward out of the Waterloo Road. As we drew up, the outline of a
figure revealed itself out of the darkest nook of the dim street, and a
man came forward and opened the door of the cab, interchanging a word
or two with our companion.

As we got out, the detective laid his hand on Guy's arm. "Gently, sir,"
he said. "You must be careful. We've not quite so much p