THE BANDY-LEGGED MAN 247

of whitebait stood fermenting in the sun, the bandy-legged
man turned suddenly into a dingy court, and when Nick
reached the corner of the entry-way was gone as though
the earth had swallowed him.

Nick stopped dismayed, and looked about. His fore-
head was wet and his breath was gone. He.had no idea
where they were, but it was a dismal hole. Six forbidding
doorways led off from the unkempt court, and a rotting
stairway sagged along the wall. A crop-eared dog, that
lay in the sun beside a broken cart, sprang up with its
hair all pointing to its head, and snarled at him with a
vicious grin. “Begone, thou cur!” he cried, and let drive
with a stone. The dog ran under the cart, and crouched
there barking at him.

Through an open door beyond there came a sound of
voices as of people in some further thoroughfare. Per-
chance the bandy-legged man had passed that way?
He ran across the court, and up the steps; but came back
faster than he went, for the passageway there was blind
and black, a place unspeakable for dirt, and filled with
people past description. A woman peered out after him
with red eyes blinking in the sun. “Ods bobs!” she
croaked, “a pretty thing! Come hither, knave; I want
the buckle off thy cloak.”

Nick, shuddering, started for the street. But just as he
reached the entry-port a door in the courtyard opened, and
the bandy-legged man came out with a bag upon his back,
leading Cicely by the hand.

Seeing Nick, he gave a cry, believing himself pursued,