Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/281

Rh a mackintosh down from a peg. Then, having told my wife not to sit up for me, I followed my strange messenger out of the house and down into the city.

"For nearly an hour we walked on and on, plunging deeper into the lower quarter of the city. All through the march my guide maintained a rigid silence, walking a few paces ahead, and only recognising the fact that I was following her by nodding in a certain direction whenever we arrived at cross streets or interlacing lanes.

"At last we arrived at the street she wanted. At the corner she came suddenly to a standstill, and putting her two fingers into her mouth blew a shrill whistle after the fashion of street boys. A moment later a shock-haired urchin about ten years old made his appearance from a dark alley and came towards us. The woman said something to him, which I did not catch, and then turning sharply to her left hand beckoned to me to follow her. This I did, but not without a feeling of wonder as to what the upshot of it all would be.

"From the street itself we passed, by way of a villainous alley, to a large courtyard where brooded a silence like that of death. Indeed, a more weird and desolate place I don't remember ever to have encountered. Not a soul was to be seen in it, and though it was surrounded by houses, only two feeble lights showed themselves. Towards one of these my guide made her way, stopping on the threshold of a door. Upon one of the panels she rapped with her fingers, and immediately she did so a window on the first floor opened and the same boy we had met in the street looked out.

"'How many?' inquired the woman who had brought me, in a loud whisper.

"'None now,' replied the boy, 'but there's been a