basking with one eye open, like some age-old serpent. She
felt he was smiling horribly all the time: lewd, unthinkable. A
strange sight he was in Woodhouse, on a sunny morning; a
shabby-looking bit of riff-raff of the East, rather down at the
heel. Who could have imagined the terrible eagle of his shoulders,
the serpent of his loins, his supple, magic skin?

The summer passed again, and autumn. Winter was a better time for
James Houghton. The trams, moreover, would begin to run in January.

He wanted to arrange a good program for the week when the trams
started. A long time ahead, Mr. May prepared it. The one item was
the Natcha-Kee-Tawara Troupe. The Natcha-Kee-Tawara Troupe consisted
of five persons, Madame Rochard and four young men. They were a
strictly Red Indian troupe. But one of the young men, the German
Swiss, was a famous yodeller, and another, the French Swiss, was a
good comic with a French accent, whilst Madame and the German did a
screaming two-person farce. Their great turn, of course, was the
Natcha-Kee-Tawara Red Indian scene.

The Natcha-Kee-Tawaras were due in the third week in January,
arriving from the Potteries on the Sunday evening. When Alvina came
in from Chapel that Sunday evening, she found her widow, Mrs.
Rollings, seated in the living room talking with James, who had an
anxious look. Since opening the Pleasure Palace James was less
regular at Chapel. And moreover, he was getting old and shaky, and
Sunday was the one evening he might spend in peace. Add that on this
particular black Sunday night it was sleeting dismally outside, and
James had already a bit of a cough, and we shall see that he did
right to stay at home.

Mrs. Rollings sat nursing a bottle. She was to go to the chemist for
some cough-cure, because Madame had got a bad cold. The chemist was
gone to Chapel--he wouldn't open till eight.

Madame and the four young men had arrived at about six. Madame, said
Mrs. Rollings, was a little fat woman, and she was complaining all
the time that she had got a cold on her chest, laying her hand on
her chest and trying her breathing and going "He-e-e-er! Herr!" to
see if she could breathe properly. She, Mrs. Rollings, had suggested
that Madame should put her feet in hot mustard and water, but Madame
said she must have something to clear her chest. The four young men
were four nice civil young fellows. They evidently liked Madame.
Madame had insisted on cooking the chops for the young men