what's it for anyway?"

"Don't rightly know. They do say it was for the garden carriers to
rest their packs on when they was coming up to market from the outlying
farms. And again I been told that they laid the corpses on it what was
being carried to the plague pits when there was one of these 'ere
epidemics in London. Long while back that 'ud be."

"Hm," said Richard, "cheery sort of memory. Well I'll take a chance
with the rest. Good night. Oh, by the way, how's one manage about
getting a wash in the mornings?"

"You goes without."

"Well, there's a damn thing," said Richard and departed with a nod.

There was an empty place on the bench but Richard hesitated long before
occupying it. Although no more than a single step it seemed a
tremendous distance from the pavement to the seat. A happy memory of a
similar sensation helped him to take the plunge--it was the trembling
nervousness he had felt on the first day of his commission when he
stood in an agony of suspense outside the anteroom of the officers'
mess and tried to summon up courage to enter. A dark shambling figure
approaching the spot decided him, and having accomplished the feat it
was only to find experience repeating itself. No one took any notice,
not a sunken chin was raised. The sleepers to right and left edged
away a trifle to give him room and continued with their breathy
muttering sleep.

Richard Frencham Altar lit a cigarette and buried his hands in his
pockets and with the whole future before him to contemplate and with
every vital problem that a man may be called upon to face, he said to
himself, "Now I wonder who that johnny was who nodded to me at the
Berkeley."

He was still wondering, for want of something better to do, when an
hour later his friend the constable passed slowly by and looked him
over critically. An official report of his observation would have read
as follows:--

Height, about five feet nine. Age, thirty odd. Hair, dark with a
disposition to wave. Eyes, brown, merry and set wide apart. Well
marked brows. Nose of medium length and slightly crooked to the left.
Short upper lip. Firm mouth with an upward twist at the corners. A
strong square chin. A habit of holding the head slightly at an angle.
Quick way of speaking and walks with a springy step. Stands with one
hand on his left hip.

"Doing all right?" asked the constable.

"Fine," said Richard.

CHAPTER 2.

EIGHT CLOSED DOORS.

As th