* 5 ° 
THE STRAND MAGAZINE 
looks and his superior education attracted me, 
and 1 did my best to buck him up ; but I 
couldn't get at him at all, and from what I’ve 
heard since I’ve been forced to the conclusion 
that he’s a bad lot, a downright bad lot. 
Has been in and out of prison, it seems, for 
the last six years.” 
“ Great Scot ! How horrid ! ” 
Shrinking back from the door, Denham 
leant up against the wall and wiped the 
moisture from his face, as the young doctor 
emerged from- the office. His aspect was 
very pitiable, and the other experienced a 
pang of compunction. 
“Halloa. Denham!” he cried; “you just 
off?” 
“ Yes.” 
“ Well, I wish you’d got a more decent day 
to start out in. You’ll have to take care for 
a bit ; one doesn’t get over such a sharp bout 
as yours at once, you know. Well, good-bye 
to you, and good luck ! ” 
He held out his strong, capable hand, and 
when he saw the tears of weakness which 
rose in the other’s eyes, and felt the clammy 
touch of his thin fingers, his heart smote him 
again. 
“ Good luck, old fellow ! ” he repeated, 
shaking the limp hand heartily; “it’s a long 
lane that has no turning, you know. Good 
luck to you ! ” 
The doctor hurried away, and Francis 
Denham, a little strengthened by the un- 
familiar comfort of human sympathy, had 
walked into the office. 
He was badly received ; the secretary had 
a pile of money before him on the desk, and 
was evidently immersed in worrying calcula- 
tions, and when Denham faltered out his 
piteous request for a small loan to enable 
him to reach his mother, he was harshly 
refused. 
But the sight of the gold had excited 
Denham, and had created in him a violent 
sense of cruel injustice. Among that heap of 
glittering coins what could one more or less 
signify to that callous, contemptuous Jack- 
in-office ? And his own need was so terribly 
great. One of those sovereigns would take 
him to his mother, to the old home that in a 
fortnight more would be cold and desolate ; 
he must and would have it. 
Urgently he argued and pleaded, but the 
other man would not help him, and at last, 
irritated almost beyond bearing at Denham’s 
persistence, the secretary walked to the office 
door and impatiently flung it open* 
“ Come, be off, Denham ! ” he said. “ I 
can’t waste any more time with you ; I’m 
up to the ears in bothering business, and you 
are really not the sort of man one feels called 
upon to help. This sudden sense of filial 
affection has come on a little late in the day. 
And as to wanting a pound to get to your 
mother, I expect that’s all bunkum ; probably 
she lives near Whitechapel or Bermondsey.” 
u She does not; she ” 
“ Ah, well, I really don’t want to know her 
whereabouts,” the other interrupted, angrily ; 
“ mv one object now is to get rid of you. and 
if half a crown will be of any service ” 
“ It would be of no use at all,” Francis 
Denham had muttered, hoarsely, and then, 
without another word, he had gone hastily 
from the office, and stumbled quickly out 
of the great red brick building, into the dark, 
cold winter day. And in his left hand, 
clenched tightly, were a couple of the golden 
coins which had lain upon the secretary’s 
desk. 
For his journey he would need but one, 
but his mother might be in actual want 
that bleak, miserable day, and he would not 
go to be a positive burden upon her. 
On and on he plodded along what seemed 
the interminable road ; then he stopped 
for a moment and, resting against the park 
railings, passed his hand over his damp 
brow, and as he did so a neighbouring church 
clock struck the hour of five. At five-fifty 
his train to the North would start, and he was 
now within ten minutes of the local station 
that would take him in five minutes more 
straight to Euston. 
His head was dizzy with fatigue and weak- 
ness, for his suppressed excitement had pre- 
vented his eating the midday meal at the 
infirmary, and his nervous trepidation had 
been too great to allow him to enter any 
provision shop during his long tramp. He 
had determined he would get food at the busy 
station, and eat it in the train when he was 
safely started. But he regretted his caution 
now, for it seemed to him as ke leant panting 
against the park railing, and listened to the 
dreary noises of the adjacent animals, that 
he had suddenly come to the end of his powers 
of endurance. He had already tramped five 
miles, and on his feet there seemed to hang 
leaden weights. 
With a shiver he rubbed his smarting eyes, 
and then through the mist he saw dimly 
the opening to the green bill, and the lights 
in the lodge windows by the side of it. For 
a while he and his false friend had lodged in 
this neighbourhood, and he was thoroughly 
familiar with the locality. 
1 will cut across the hill,” he muttered. 
