ss of step which seems to be inseparable from place,
power, and six feet two.

It was a quiet street, such as Wealth loves to inhabit. There were few
carriages passing along it, and fewer passengers. Number 666 had
nothing particular to do--the inhabitants being painfully well-behaved,
and the sun high. His mind, therefore, roamed about aimlessly,
sometimes bringing playfully before him a small abode, not very far
distant, where a pretty woman was busy with household operations, and a
ferocious policeman, about three feet high, was taking into custody an
incorrigible criminal of still smaller size.

A little boy, with very long arms and legs, might have been seen
following our friend Giles Scott, until the latter entered upon one of
those narrow paths made by builders on the pavements of streets when
houses are undergoing repairs. Watching until Giles was half way along
it, the boy ran nimbly up and accosted him with a familiar--

"Well, old man, 'ow are you?"

"Pretty bobbish, thank you," returned the constable, for he was a
good-natured man, and rather liked a little quiet chaff with street-boys
when not too much engaged with duty.

"Well, now, are you aweer that there's a-goin' to be a burglairy
committed in this 'ere quarter?" asked the boy, thrusting both hands
deep into his pockets, and bending his body a little back, so as to look
more easily up at his tall friend.

"Ah! indeed, well no, I didn't know it, for I forgot to examine the
books at Scotland Yard this morning, but I've no doubt it's entered
there by your friend who's goin' to commit it."

"No, it ain't entered there," said the boy, with a manner and tone that
rather surprised Number 666; "and I'd advise you to git out your
note-book, an' clap down wot I'm a-goin' to tell ye. You know the 'ouse
of Sir Richard Brandon?"

"Yes, I know it."

"Well, that 'ouse is to be cracked on the 31st night o' this month."

"How d'you know that, lad?" asked Giles, moving towards the end of the
barricade, so as to get nearer to his informant.

"No use, bobby," said Tim, "big as you are, you can't nab me. Believe
me or not as you like, but I advise you to look arter that there 'ouse
on the 31st if you valley your repitation."

Tim went off like a congreve rocket, dashed down a side street, sloped
into an alley, and melted into a wilderness of bricks and mortar.

Of course Giles did not attempt to follow, but some mysterious
communications passed betwee