Archie
Roylance turning up to rescue me. I remember yet the sour smell of the
factories and the mist of smoke in the evening air. It is a smell I
have never met since without a sort of dulling of spirit.

Presently I came out into a market-place. Whistles were blowing, and
there was a great hurrying of people back from the mills. The crowd
gave me a momentary sense of security, and I was just about to inquire
my way to the railway station when someone jostled my arm.

A rough-looking fellow in mechanic's clothes was beside me.

'Mate,' he whispered. 'I've got summat o' yours here.' And to my
amazement he slipped my watch into my hand.

'It was took by mistake. We're friends o' yours. You're right enough if
you do what I tell you. There's a peeler over there got his eye on you.
Follow me and I'll get you off.'

I didn't much like the man's looks, but I had no choice, and anyhow he
had given me back my watch. He sidled into an alley between tall houses
and I sidled after him. Then he took to his heels, and led me a
twisting course through smelly courts into a tanyard and then by a
narrow lane to the back-quarters of a factory. Twice we doubled back,
and once we climbed a wall and followed the bank of a blue-black stream
with a filthy scum on it. Then we got into a very mean quarter of the
town, and emerged in a dingy garden, strewn with tin cans and broken
flowerpots. By a back door we entered one of the cottages and my guide
very carefully locked it behind him.

He lit the gas and drew the blinds in a small parlour and looked at me
long and quizzically. He spoke now in an educated voice.

'I ask no questions,' he said, 'but it's my business to put my services
at your disposal. You carry the passport.'

I stared at him, and he pulled out his watch and showed a
white-and-purple cross inside the lid.

'I don't defend all the people we employ,' he said, grinning. 'Men's
morals are not always as good as their patriotism. One of them pinched
your watch, and when he saw what was inside it he reported to me. We
soon picked up your trail, and observed you were in a bit of trouble.
As I say, I ask no questions. What can we do for you?'

'I want to get to London without any questions asked. They're looking
for me in my present rig, so I've got to change it.'

'That's easy enough,' he said. 'Make yourself comfortable for a little
and I'll fix you up. The night train goes at eleven-thirty.... You'll
find cigars in the cu