er her, and
whispered in her ear. She appeared to have swooned, but opened her
eyes, and gazed earnestly in the face of her deliverer.

"The Lord must have sent you to save me, Phil; He will save _you_ also,
if you will trust Him."

"Forgive me, Martha, I was hard on you, but--"

"God bless you, Phil--"

"Clear the way there," cried a commanding voice; "here, doctor, this
way."

The crowd opened. A medical man came forward and examined Martha, and
pronounced her to be only slightly injured. Several men then raised her
and carried her towards a neighbouring house. Phil Sparks was about to
follow, but the quiet man with the broad shoulders touched him gently on
the arm, and said that he was "wanted."

"Sorry to interrupt you in such a good work, but it can't be helped.
Other people can take care of her now, you know; come along."

Sparks' first impulse was to knock the quiet man down and fly, but he
felt a restraining power on his other arm, and, looking round, observed
a tall policeman at his side. As if by magic, another tall policeman
appeared in front of him, and a third behind him. He suddenly bent down
his head and suffered himself to be led away. Seeing this, the Bloater
and Little Jim wrenched themselves from the grasp of their respective
captors, dived between the legs of the bystanders, as eels might do
among sedges, and vanished, to their own inexpressible delight and the
total discomfiture of the "bobbies." They met a few minutes later at a
well-known rendezvous.

"I wish 'e 'adn't bin took," said the Bloater with a look of regret on
his expressive though dirty countenance.

"Poor Martha!" said Little Jim, almost crying as he thought of her.
"'Ow much d'you think 'e'll get, Bloater?"

"Twenty years at least; p'r'aps go for life; you see it's an aggrawated
case. I've bin makin' partikler inquiries, and I finds 'e's bin raisin'
no end o' fires doorin' the last six months--kep' the Red Brigade
trottin' about quite in a surprisin' way. I rather fear that 'e'll be
let in for ever an' a day."

The Bloater was not quite correct in his guess. When the trial came on,
to the surprise of all, especially of his "pals," Phil Sparks pleaded
_guilty_! Partly in consideration of this, and partly on account of his
last courageous act in saving the girl, he was let off with fifteen
years penal servitude.

But, to return from this episode. The great fire at the docks, after
gutting several warehouses