The Vultures

into an ever-gray sky-there stands a house known as the Signal House. Why it is so called no one knows and very few care to inquire. It is presumably a square house of the Jaco

ave laid their seals upon the hinges. A side gate gives entrance to such as come on foot. A door in the wall, up an alley, is labelled "Tradesman's Entrance," but the tradesmen never linger there. No merry milkman leaves the latest gossip with his thin, blue milk on that threshold. The butcher's chariot wheels ne

n his rounds. He goes slowly and pessimistically, and

d as a riverside residence, then as a quaint and interesting demesne. Finally its price fell with a crash, and an elderly lady of weak intellect was sent by her relations to live in it, with two servants, who were frequently to be met in Gravesend i

river view. He was quite as broad as he was long, though he was not preposterously stout. There was nothing mysterious about him. He was well known in the City. He had merely mistaken an undesirable suburb

Signal House occasionally from Saturday till Monday. Then he gave it up altogether, and tried to sell it. It stood empty for some years, while the Russian banker extended his business and lived virtuousl

e worried much about the Signal House; for they were a busy people who lived all around, and had to earn their living, in addition to the steady and persistent assuagement of a thirst begotten of cement dust and the pungent smell of bone manure. One or two local ama

three friends one summer afternoon, some years ago, and came without luggage. The servants, who followed in a second cab, carried some parcels, presum

alking thus when another cab stopped at the closed iron gate, and the banker hurried, as fast as his

in a Northern voice, "ano

he cabman. When the vehicle had gone the host

ther of my little jobs. I hope

piece of beard left fantastically at the base of his chin. His eyes were blue and bright, like gimlets. He may have had a soft heart, but it was certainly hidden beneath a hard exterior. He wore a thick coat of blue pilot-cloth, not because the July day was cold, but because

" he answered,

being that his name was so absurdly and egregiously Russian that the plain English tongue never embarked on that sea of consonants. "It is an affair, as

to the garden, where three

s discomfiture. He did not hold by foreign ways; but he dragged his hat off and then expectorated

Sun'land that has a speciality, an' that's tra

y were not, so he must h

mself to one of his companions, rath

French," interrup

, I am. Do you

e, affably. "They're all one to

of blatant patriotism a thorough Englishman, or a true

res were square-cut and strong. His eyes were dark, and he had an easy smile. He led the way to some chairs which had been placed near a table at the far end of t

o are plain men with

banker

mon Pr

the others, the youngest of the group-a merry-eyed youth,

says that we also are plain men, and that y

been grasped, rather shame-facedly, by Captain Cable, who did not like t

own, and was mostly hidden by a closely cut beard. He had the slow ways of a Northerner, the abashed manner of a merchant skipper on shore. The mark of the other element was so plainly written upon him

g. Or'nary risks of the sea, Queen's enemies, act o' God-them's m

losives," admi

y don't go below my hatches. Explosives that

," said the young man

pointing a thick finger towards the banker, a

some measurement-a few cases of light goods, clothing and such. You will load in the river, and all will be sent to you in lighters. Ther

r paused

me and my ship. There is no insurance, no tricking under

athless banker, with whom it

" he added, with an affable

omewhere where officials are not wide-awake. You meet in the North Sea, at a poin

nd gravely shook hands

" he said. And Captain Petersen r

ut of sight of land or lightship. But that

measuring Captain Petersen out of the corne

mill, at the head of a fjord-where I shall have a cargo of timber waiti

ying in the river now, and if these gentlem

e banker, hastily. "And now we must leave you and Captain P

ly on the table. For the last ten years he had been postponing the necessity of buying new charts

e much," he said, apprehensively, as he unf

ward his chair, and Cable, seeing

ed, with a weight of doubt

fession, on

ea forty years, and I haven't yet

"his Ex-Mr.-" He paused, and looked in

Mar

u remember that Captain Petersen speaks no English, and you do not know his language. The two crews, I understand, wi

t only speak English, and precious li

d and looked up, fixing his bright glance

-spoken man myself-what is the

you," replied the white-haired gentleman

ed his grizzled he

ith a gentleman,"

ed the white-haired

ble grunte