Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/262

252 seemed to know anything of bed. Groups of sullen-looking men and women were to be observed at the corners, and on one occasion the woman I was pursuing was stopped by them. But she evidently knew how to take care of herself, for she was soon marching on her way again.

At the end of one long and filthily dirty street she paused and looked about her. I had crossed the road just before this, and was scarcely ten yards behind her. I had pulled my hat well down to shade my face, and sticking my hands in my pockets, I staggered and reeled along, doing my level best to imitate the action of a very intoxicated man. Seeing only me about, she went to the window of the corner house and tapped with her knuckles thrice upon the glass. Before one could have counted twenty the door of the dwelling was opened, and she passed in. Now I was in a nasty fix either I must be content to abandon my search, or I must get inside the building, and trust to luck to get the information I wanted. Fortunately, in my present disguise the girl would be hardly likely to recognise her master's guest. So giving them time to get into a room, I also went up to the door, and turned the handle. To my delight it was unlocked. I opened it, and entered the house.

The passage was in total darkness; but I could make out where the door was by a thin streak of bright light low down. As softly as I possibly could, I crept up to it, and bent down to look through the keyhole. The view was necessarily limited, but I could just make out the girl I had followed sitting upon a bed; and leaning against the wall, a dirty clay pipe in her mouth, was the vilest old woman I ever in my life set eyes on. She was very small, with a pinched-up nut-cracker face, dressed