ng upwards somewhere, and banged the door
in her visitor's face.

"Up there!" The missionary had reached the highest landing, and saw no
other gleam of light anywhere. Groping about, however, his hand struck
against a ladder. All doubt as to the use of this was immediately
banished, for a man's heavy tread was heard in the room above as he
crossed it.

Mounting the ladder, the missionary, instead of coming to a higher
landing as he had expected, thrust his hat against a trap-door in the
roof. Immediately he heard a savage human growl. Evidently the man was
in a bad humour, but the missionary knocked.

"Who's there?" demanded the man, fiercely, for his visitors were few,
and these generally connected with the police force.

"May I come in?" asked the missionary in a mild voice--not that he put
the mildness on for the occasion. He was naturally mild--additionally
so by grace.

"Oh! yes--you may come in," cried the man, lifting the trap-door.

The visitor stepped into the room and was startled by Ned letting fall
the trap-door with a crash that shook the whole tenement. Planting
himself upon it, he rendered retreat impossible.

It was a trying situation, for the man was in a savage humour, and
evidently the worse for drink. But missionaries are bold men.

"Now," demanded Ned, "what may _you_ want?"

"I want your soul," replied his visitor, quietly.

"You needn't trouble yourself, then, for the devil's got it already."

"No--he has not got it _yet_, Ned."

"Oh! you know me then?"

"No. I never saw you till to-night, but I learned your name
accidentally, and I'm anxious about your soul."

"You don't know me," Ned repeated, slowly, "you never saw me till
to-night, yet you're anxious about my soul! What stuff are you talkin'!
'Ow can that be?"

"Now, you have puzzled _me_," said the missionary. "I cannot tell how
that can be, but it is no `stuff' I assure you. I think it probable,
however, that your own experience may help you. Didn't you once see a
young girl whom you had never seen before, whom you didn't know, whom
you had never even heard of, yet you became desperately anxious to win
her?"

Ned instantly thought of a certain woman whom he had often abused and
beaten, and whose heart he had probably broken.

"Yes," he said, "I did; but then I had falled in love wi' her at first
sight, and you can't have falled in love wi' _me_, you know."

Ned grinned at this idea in spite of himself.