uliar to him. "I somehow
fancy that I've made a good investment, Dollops. Filled up, eh?"

"No, sir--never filled. Born 'ungry, I reckon. But filled as much as you
could fill me, bless your 'eart. I aren't never goin' to forget that,
Gov'nor--no fear. An eater and a scrapper I am, sir; and I'll scrap for
_you_, sir, while there's a bloomin' breff left in my blessed body!
Gimme the tip wot kind of work I _can_ do for you, Gov'nor, will you? I
want to get them two 'arf-crowns off my conscience as quick as I can."

Cleek looked at him and smiled again.

"Yes, I'm _sure_ I made a good bargain, Dollops," he said. "Come in."
And in this way the attachment which existed between them ever afterward
had its beginning.

He took the boy in and up to the little room on the second floor which
he called his den; and, turning on the light, motioned him to a chair,
laid aside his hat and gloves, and was just about to pull up a chair for
himself when he caught sight of an unstamped letter lying upon his
writing-table.

"Sit down there and wait a moment until I read this, my lad," he said;
and forthwith tore the letter open.

It was from Superintendent Narkom. He had known that from the first,
however. No one but Narkom ever wrote him letters. This one was
exceedingly brief. It simply contained these two lines:

"My dear Cleek. The Three Jolly Fishermen, Richmond, at tea-time
to-morrow. An astonishing affair. Yours, M. N."

"Dollops, my lad, I think I'm going to make a man of you," he said as he
tore the letter into a dozen pieces and tossed the fragments into a
waste-basket. "At any rate, I'm going to have a try. Know anything about
Richmond?"

"Yuss, sir."

"Good. Well, we'll have a half-hour's talk and then I'll find a
temporary bed for you for the night, and to-morrow we'll take a pull on
the river at Richmond and see what we shall see."

The half-hour, however, developed into a full one; for it was after two
o'clock when the talk was finished and a bed improvised for the boy; but
Cleek, saying good night to him at last and going to his own bedroom,
felt that it was a long, long way from being time wasted.

What Dollops thought is, perhaps, best told by the fact that he burst
out crying when Cleek came in in the morning to ask how he had slept.

"Slept, Gov'nor!" he said. "Why, bless your 'eart, sir, I couldn't a
slept better on a bed of roses, nor 'ad 'arf such comfort. Feel like I
needed someone to lend me a biff on