face like a mummy, with only the stumps of
teeth which had more the appearance of tusks. Her unkempt hair was
matted and ugly wisps of it hung down over her bleary eyes. For clothes
she wore an old-fashioned faded gingham wrapper and around her shoulders
a dirty torn shawl. On her feet was a pair of man's shoes, many sizes
too large, which had evidently been cast away as useless by some former
owner, himself squalid. These she managed to keep on by tying the tops
with wrapping-cord. A more unlovely human being it would have been hard
to find in all the great city. There she sat, crooning a ballad to
herself in a high, cracked voice. It sounded like an incantation.

A step sounded in the alley and Old Meg looked up and listened intently.
The sound came nearer. She got up and retreated into a dark corner, for
she knew the neighborhood well, and many a time some thug, brutal with
drink, had entered her den and wrung her last few pennies from her.

But it was no inhabitant of this quarter of the town who entered this
time. It was Paul Balcom.

The hag grinned in a horrible way at him, for it was not unusual for
people of his kind to visit her and it always meant money. With her
apron she dusted off the chair that stood at the table and begged him to
be seated. Then she shuffled the cards and cut, shuffled and cut, and
then as though at last satisfied she laid them face downward on the
table and spoke.

"Wish, my handsome gentleman, and may your wish come true."

"Go ahead with the hocus-pocus," growled Paul.

Mother Meg picked up one card after another and her cracked voice was
evidently following a set formula.

"If the queen of spades comes between the king of clubs and the queen of
hearts--"

Paul listened with a strained intentness as the hag singsonged on and
on. Then a look of satisfaction came into his eyes and he smiled
happily. Next his look changed to a nasty look of determination, and he
abruptly got up, tossing a bank-note on the table which Old Meg grabbed
with avidity, calling down Heaven's blessings on the handsome gentleman
until Paul, running up-stairs, could hear no more.

Paul returned immediately to his father's apartment, where Balcom was
impatiently waiting for him. He described minutely Old Meg, her
eagerness for money, and the squalid quarters in which she lived. The
elder Balcom seemed satisfied and they left the apartment together.

"Paul," directed Balcom, "get out to Brent Rock as soon