ries during my checkered career, but never did sport give me such
a wild thrill as this mad, flying man-hunt down the Thames. Steadily
we drew in upon them, yard by yard. In the silence of the night we
could hear the panting and clanking of their machinery. The man in the
stern still crouched upon the deck, and his arms were moving as though
he were busy, while every now and then he would look up and measure
with a glance the distance which still separated us. Nearer we came
and nearer. Jones yelled to them to stop. We were not more than four
boat's lengths behind them, both boats flying at a tremendous pace. It
was a clear reach of the river, with Barking Level upon one side and
the melancholy Plumstead Marshes upon the other. At our hail the man
in the stern sprang up from the deck and shook his two clinched fists
at us, cursing the while in a high, cracked voice. He was a good-sized,
powerful man, and as he stood poising himself with legs astride I could
see that from the thigh downwards there was but a wooden stump upon the
right side. At the sound of his strident, angry cries there was
movement in the huddled bundle upon the deck. It straightened itself
into a little black man--the smallest I have ever seen--with a great,
misshapen head and a shock of tangled, dishevelled hair. Holmes had
already drawn his revolver, and I whipped out mine at the sight of this
savage, distorted creature. He was wrapped in some sort of dark ulster
or blanket, which left only his face exposed; but that face was enough
to give a man a sleepless night. Never have I seen features so deeply
marked with all bestiality and cruelty. His small eyes glowed and
burned with a sombre light, and his thick lips were writhed back from
his teeth, which grinned and chattered at us with a half animal fury.

"Fire if he raises his hand," said Holmes, quietly. We were within a
boat's-length by this time, and almost within touch of our quarry. I
can see the two of them now as they stood, the white man with his legs
far apart, shrieking out curses, and the unhallowed dwarf with his
hideous face, and his strong yellow teeth gnashing at us in the light
of our lantern.

It was well that we had so clear a view of him. Even as we looked he
plucked out from under his covering a short, round piece of wood, like
a school-ruler, and clapped it to his lips. Our pistols rang out
together. He whirled round, threw up his arms, and with a kind of
choki