ime to sit down at all."

"Why not?"

"The Park closes at twelve."

"Closes?"

"At twelve o'clock, and it's half-past eleven now." The boy's heart sank
into his wet boots. Here was an end of all his dashing plans. He was
certain he had heard or read of people sleeping in the Park; he had looked
upon it as a vast dormitory of the houseless; that was the only reason he
was there. The offensive clerk in the hotel had evidently entertained the
same belief. This idiot of a policeman must be wrong. But he seemed
quite clear about it.

"Did you think we were open all night?" he inquired with a grin.

"I did," said Pocket; and he was inspired to add, "I even thought a lot of
loafers used to sleep here all night!"

The policeman chuckled aloud.

"They may if they get up the trees; that's about their only chance," said
he.

"You search the whole place so thoroughly?"

"We keeps our eyes open," said the policeman significantly, and Pocket
asked no more questions; he scaled the forbidden fence and made off with
the alacrity of one who meant to go out before he was put out. Such was
his then sincere and sound intention. But where next to turn, to what
seat on the Embankment, or what arch in the slums, in his ignorance of
London he had no idea.

Meanwhile, to increase the irony of his dilemma, now that he was bent on
quitting the Park he found himself striking deeper and deeper into its
heart. He skirted a building, left it behind and out of sight, and
drifted before the wind of destiny between an upright iron fence on one
hand and a restricted open space upon the other. He could no longer see a
single light; but the ground rose abruptly across the fence, and was thick
with shrubs. Men might have been lying behind those shrubs, and Pocket
could not possibly have seen them from the path. Did the policeman mean
to tell him that he or his comrades were going to climb every fence and
look behind every bush in Hyde Park?

Pocket came to anchor with a new flutter at his heart. This upright fence
was not meant for scaling; it was like a lot of area palings, as obvious
and intentional an obstacle. And the whole place closed at twelve, did
it? The flutter became a serious agitation as Pocket saw himself breaking
the laws of the land as well as those of school, saw himself not only
expelled but put in prison! Well, so much the better for his story so
long as those penalties were not incurred; even if they were, s