of the man
held his gaze, for he had never seen anyone quite like him before.

As the cripple advanced slowly past the few houses of Water Street,
here and there a window was opened and a coin tossed out, which the
cripple held his cap for, or grubbed with his filthy hands where he
heard it fall. Watching his progress, Chris became fascinated with the
accuracy with which the blind man caught the coins or found them in
the road. After a passing gentleman on horseback had tossed a silver
piece in his direction, the hunchback made off around the corner of
the stables beyond Mr. Wicker's garden.

The boy hung out even farther and craned his neck to see what the
blind man would do, for from his determined gait he seemed to have a
purpose. Feeling along the side of the barn to guide himself, when he
came to the back of it the cripple darted around, and then, to Chris's
amazement, lifted the corner of one black eye patch and peered out
from under it! Seeing no one, and thinking himself unobserved, the
cripple nonchalantly pushed both eye patches onto his forehead, fished
in his pocket, and began examining the silver piece he had just
retrieved. It appeared to satisfy his scrutiny, turn it over and over
though he did, but to be quite sure of its value he bit tentatively on
it with his back teeth. This seemed to be the final test, for the
cripple grinned from ear to ear, disclosing even fewer teeth than
Master Cilley.

Next, the hunchback sat down upon a heap of straw, laying his crutch
beside him, and with a quick movement, wriggled himself out of not
only his jacket but his humpback too!

Chris could scarcely believe his eyes, but he now saw that a false
hump had been cleverly sewn into the jacket from inside. The cripple
untied a patch that formed a trap door in the hump, and putting his
hand inside the hollow, drew from its hiding place in the false hump a
small bag tied at the neck with a string. Then, as Chris watched, he
counted the contents of the bag, pieces of money that winked in the
sun, and added to his horde those pieces he had begged that morning.
The bag was then retied, replaced, and the jacket and hump put back on
its wearer with evident satisfaction.

But the cripple had not yet completed his work. Holding the silver
piece between the blackened stubs of his front teeth, with difficulty
he managed to hoist his peg leg over his good knee. Then, after
darting many a sly look all about him, he unstrapped the