Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces

be no question regarding the nature of it. Miss Lorne came to an instant standstill and clutched her belongings closer to her

-odd pounds in money, several bits of valuable jewellery-your whole earthly possessions, in fact-and have lost your way on Hampstead Heath at half-past eight o'clock at night, wit

f the heart and pulse of the sluggish leviathan London. Over it the vapours of night crowded, an almost palpable wall of thick, wet mist, stirred now and again by some atmospheric movement

er skirts and run, or to stand her ground and demand an explanation f

want?" she flung out, keeping her voice as steady a

ightly to the left of her. Now there came a hurried rush and scramble on the right; there was the sound of a match being scratched, a blob of lig

is high cheekbones, his gouged jaws; staring like a starved wolf, through

atch gave him a full view of her, standing there with her lips shut hard, and, the hand-bag clutche

. Keep away, please. Don't come any nearer. What do you want?" "Well, I'll take that blessed 'and-bag to go on with;

Fear had absolutely stricken every atom of strength from her. She co

quiet, or are you a-goin' to mike me tik

ght call a hammer-chewer at it, but when there's summink inside you, wot tears

hand to lay hold of her, when another hand-strong, sinewy, hard-shutting as an iron clamp-reached out from the mist, and laid ho

arp staccato of a semi-excited voice. "Interfering with young ladies, eh? Let'

both the half-throttled boy and the wholly frightened girl cou

said Ailsa with something between a laugh

rash of you to cross the heath at this time and in this weather. I rather fancied that so

you I heard

you hadn't called out. A moment, please. Let's have a look at this

kband. Perhaps he was, in his way, something of a fatalist-London breeds so many among such as he: starved things that find every boat chained, every effort thrust back upon them unrewarded. At any rate, from the moment he had heard the girl give to thi

"Yours is a face I don't remember running foul of

answered the boy, with something like a sigh of despair. "Leastways, I been in H

s your

nd this 'ere 'honest work' you're a-talkin' of? I'm fair sick of the gime of lookin' for it. Besides, you don't see parties as goes in for the other thing walkin' round with ribs on 'em like bed-slats, and not eve

ditch-down to the poin

hers to a bun and a cup of corfy at a corfy stall over 'Ighgate way. Stood out agin bein' a crook as long as ever I could-as long as ever I'm goin' to, I reckon, now you've got your maulers on me. I'll be on the list after this. The cops 'ul

ith an ever-deepening interest; now he loosened the

I take a chance and lend you five shillings, will you

p at him and lau

lark wiv a chap jist before you're goin' to 'ang

and two half-crowns lay on his outstretched palm. "There you are-off with you now, and if you are any good, turn up some time to-night at No. 204, Clarges Street

to the coins and from the coins back to the man; then, gradually, the truth of the thing seemed to tri

remember the street,"

e back through the enfolding mist; "Gawd,

g a chance like this; and, above all, with a fellow who would have stripped you of e

hadow of seriousness in her eyes. "But as to what I think regarding your action toward that dreadful boy.... Oh, of course, if there is a chance of saving him from a career of crime, I thin

p that boy at that time ... Ah, well! it wasn't. The Devil took the reins and the game went his way. If five shillings will put the reins into that boy's hands to-night and steer him back to the right path, so much the better for him and-for me.

o kind. I hope you know that this is the third time you have rendered me a service since I had the pleasure of meeting you. It is very

into step with her and they faced the mist and the distance together. "I suppose you are alluding to my success in the famous Stanhope Case-the newspap

successes I have seen recorded to your credit in the past two years. Do you know that I have a natural predilection for such things? It may be morbid of me-is it?-but I have the strongest kind of a leaning toward the tales of Gaboriau; and I have always wanted t

among the men of The Yard whom I occasionally work with. You do, however; so does Mr. Narkom, occasionally. So did that boy, unfortunately. I had to show it when I came to your assistance, if only to assure you that you were in friendly hands and to prevent you taking fright and

" she said. "I hope I need not

h more to you than you are aware, that-Oh, well, it doesn't matter. You a

ruck upward to his face. It was not the same face for ten seconds at a time. What Sir Horace Wyvern had seen in Mr. Nar

. It is awful!" And, after a moment, when the light had been shut off and the man beside her was only a shape in the mist: "I hope I may never see you

curious little rubber faces which you can pinch up into all sorts of distorted countenances-you have seen the things, no doubt. She would sit for hours screaming with laughter over the droll shapes into which she squeezed the thing. Afterward, when her little son