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IN ENGLAND AGAIN 297

“This is the gentleman I was speaking to you of, Tony.”

As the man took off his cap Charlie had a good view of
his face. It was shrewd and intelligent. “ You understand
what I want?” he asked, as the waiter ran into the house
again to attend to his duties.

“Yes, sir; so far as I] understood him, you wish to go to
taverns of somewhat inferior reputations, and to see some-
thing of that side of London life. If you will pardon my
boldness, it is somewhat of a dangerous venture. In such
places brawls are frequent and rapiers soon out. You look
to me like one who could hold his own in a fray,” he added
as his eye ran over the athletic figure before him, “but it is
not always fair fighting. These fellows hang together, and
while engaged with one, half a dozen might fall upon you.
As to your purse, sir, it is your own affair. You will
assuredly lose your money if you play or wager with them.
But that is no concern of mine. Neither, you may say, is
your life; but it seems to me that it is. One young gentle-
man from the country, who wanted, like you, to see life,
was killed in a brawl, and I have never forgiven myself for
having taken him to the tavern where he lost his life. Thus
I say, that though willing enough to earn a crown or two
outside my own work, I must decline to take you to places
where, as it seems to me, you are likely to get into trouble.”

“You are an honest fellow, and I like you all the more
for speaking out frankly to me,” Charlie said, “and were
I, as I told your brother, thinking of going to such places
solely for amusement, what you say would have weight with
me; but as I see that you are to be trusted, I will tell you
more. I want to find a man who did me and mine a griev-
ous ill turn. I have no intention of killing him or any-
thing of that sort, but it is a matter of great importance to
lay hand on him. All I know of him is that he is a
frequenter of taverns here, and those not of the first char-
acter. Just at present he is, 1 have reason to believe,