d received the sentence with the same impertinent smirk on his
face as he had received many similar sentences.

Now he was a free man. He was powerful, full of health, and--lazy. He
reflected aloud, with evident enjoyment (and in the speech of a lettered
gentleman), "This is indeed one of those days when it is good to be
alive!"

"O'Hagan!" came a sudden voice, harsh and authoritative, from behind
him: He rose to his feet and faced about. In the roadway appeared the
constable to whom he had addressed some not over polite remarks on his
way out of prison.

"Well?" said O'Hagan.

The constable snorted. "Didn't you hear me tell you to move on? We don't
want any habitual criminals hanging about here."

O'Hagan dived his hands deep into the pockets of his shiny trousers and
slouched along towards the next village. About a mile ahead was an inn
he knew of where he might enjoy a great refreshment, and drink the
waters of Lethe. He jingled the silver in his pocket and reflected that
for one night at least he could eat strongly, and drink largely, and
sleep deeply.

* * * * *

Outside a house screened by a mysterious ten foot wall full of the plain
dignity of unpretending age, a long grey motor car was standing. O'Hagan
turned and surveyed it, and his quick eye rested upon a leather hand
case on a rug beneath the seat. It did not take him a moment to snatch
it and hide it swiftly beneath his coat. For a second or so he stood
back against the wall. At that moment a girl came out of the house, in
company with an elderly gentleman, and walked towards the car. O'Hagan
looked at the girl swiftly. At the same time she glanced at him, and
their eyes met. Things looked unhealthy for O'Hagan. But fate was
altogether with him, and the motor moved off and left him standing there
with the case under his coat. No glorious figure, this man, but one of
those whom specialists now place amongst the doomed as cursed with the
criminal instinct, with the vices that require lavish means to feed
them--a man who only feels a thrill in life when he is preying on his
fellows, or eluding the hand of justice.

* * * * *

O'Hagan walked down the road a little way with his hand resting
lovingly on the leather case. He turned a corner, cut through the hedge,
and took a track across a field. In the shelter of a clump of bushes he
sat leisurely on the grass and went over the contents. Amo