you fellers?"

The voice came from behind the two men. Turning, they saw a stout,
ill-looking fellow, with unkempt hair and beard, peering in at them
from the street.

"Ain't this the house where Mrs. Scarlet stops," questioned the
elderly man.

"Mebbe 'tis."

"Where's the woman now?"

"Bless your soul, old man, I don't know. Better call agin; she's allus
in evenings," suggested the man at the edge of the street.

"Mebbe we had," grunted the old man at the door. Then he and his
companion moved out of the alley. They went but a little way when they
came to a full stop, and entered into a low confab.

A pair of keen eyes was watching them during the time, however, and a
little later the man who had addressed the two strangers walked away.
He passed to the rear of the block, and made his way by a back stairs
to a room on the first floor. Here he found the one he was seeking--
Mrs. Scarlet--who was engaged in discussing a supper of bread and
beer.

She was alone.

"Eh? so you're here again, Nick? Did he send ye?"

"The Professor?"

"Who else should I mean?"

"Wall, he didn't, then. I seed a couple of blokes in the alley jist
now, and they 'quired for you."

"Why didn't you send 'em up?" and the woman laughed in a way that
revealed her ragged teeth and unwholesome gums.

"They'll be back soon 'nough," answered the man. "I've an idee they
mean mischief. Better you go below and see 'em when they do come."

"All right."

About an hour after darkness had settled, while Madge Scarlet sat in
the lower room, the one in which we have so many times met her, the
door was unceremoniously opened, and a man crossed the threshold.

An old man he was, with bent form and white hair, a hump disfiguring
his shoulder, his trembling right hand resting on the top of a cane.

"Good evening, mistress."

The old man, who had closed the door sharply to behind him, sank to a
rickety chair as he uttered the greeting.

"I don't know you," retorted Madge Scarlet sharply. "Haven't you got
into the wrong house?"

"Well, I dunno," whined the man in a sharp falsetto voice. "I reckon
if you're Mistress Scarlet, you're the one I'm to see."

"I'm not ashamed to own to the name, old man. Let's have your business
at once."

"I'm pretty much broke up since I came out of the bastile," said the
old man. "'Taint jest the place for a gentleman, I can tell you that.
It's mighty down-settin' on one's pride, which I had a heap of afore I