A BAD LOT. 
On the higher ground the wind had caused 
the mist to disperse* and he could see plainly 
the shapes of the bushes and the trees in the 
railed-in garden which crowned the summit 
of the ascent ; from every twig and branch 
moisture dropped heavily and glistened in the 
light of the big incandescent gas-lamp which 
stood in the centre of the small, level plateau, 
and so dense was the silence of the deserted 
spot that for a long minute he could even hear 
the rain-drops falling on the ground beneath. 
But all at once from the high road came the 
distant rush and roar of heavy motor traffic, 
and then there fell on his ears another sound, 
and as it rose upon the air a chilling sense of 
actual terror froze the blood in Francis 
Denham’s veins. 
For the last half-hour he had heard at 
intervals the muffled cries of the caged wild 
beasts ; but this snarling, hideous growl was 
near at hand, and rang out like a death-knell. 
For a moment the trembling man stood 
motionless, paralyzed with a ghastly, nerve- 
shattering fear. There came a tearing and a 
rending of the bushes, and then a great, 
grizzly form leapt the rails and, with another 
rumbling growl and a hissing snarl, came to a 
stand immediately in front of Denham. 
In the pale gleam of the gas the creature 
was distinctly revealed to the horrified man, 
and at the terrible sight his labouring heart 
seemed to stop for an instant, and then to 
thump in his breast with almost suffocating 
violence. 
It was a huge, shaggy grey wolf with 
bristling spine which stood there in his path ; 
the jaws were distended and the lips drawn 
back, disclosing the awful fangs, and in the 
lurid eyes, gleaming like coals of fire, there 
shone the fierce, wild light of maddened 
hunger. 
For a long minute the hunted man and the 
hunted brute stood quivering in every 
muscle, glaring into each other’s distended 
eyes, and then there flashed into Denham’s 
mind an explanation of those two lurking 
figures at the lodge gates. They were 
keepers from the Zoological Gardens, and 
they were tracking, not him, but the ominous, 
terrible beast in front of him. 
And at the thought the crushing, paralyzing 
weight which had lain upon his spirits 
suddenly lifted ; his courage, which had been 
dormant for many years, returned to him, and 
the hot blood rushed with revivifying force 
through his veins, strengthening his weak 
arm and nerve for the terrible encounter he 
saw to be inevitable. 
Planting himself firmly on his feet, Francis 
iS3 
Denham grasped his heavy wooden lath with 
an iron grip, and on the almost imperceptible 
movement of the man the creature dropped 
his red staring eyes, and with an undulating 
motion of the upstanding ridge of coarse hair 
on his back, and another hissing snarl, sprang 
direct at Denham’s throat. 
But Denham in his boyhood had been the 
best boxer of his school, and was also the 
champion in the single-stick competitions, 
which old-fashioned sport still survived in the 
northern county of his birth ; and now the 
blow he dealt was straight and sure, and even 
as the great beast sprang the crack of the wood 
rang out sharply on the grey, rough head. 
With a discordant howl of baffled anguish, 
panting grievously, the half-stunned, starved 
creature fell back heavily, and after crouching 
and cowering for a moment at the man’s feet, 
with a feeble moan, its lowered bushy tail 
dragging along the muddy ground, crept under 
one of the seats near. 
-And Denham, with his blood tingling in his 
veins and his spirits elated with the triumph 
of a victory over a formidable foe, waited an 
instant to recover his breath and to rub bis 
hand, which smarted with the force of the 
vigorous blow he had delivered, and then 
with a little laugh of boyish satisfaction — 
certainly the first laugh which had issued from 
his lips for many a year — pursued his way 
down the hill-side almost briskly. 
In his newly-restored courage he was now 
even inclined to make light of the nervous 
fears which before had almost crushed him. 
Tt was quite possible, he reflected, that his 
theft might not have been discovered even 
yet. The secretary was obviously in a 
ruffled, worried condition, probably over his 
cash accounts — in that case he would be some 
time arriving at a conclusion. Yes, and that 
would account also for his impatience and 
incivility ; hitherto, Denham acknowledged, 
the secretary had treated him very decently. 
That circumstance, of course, would heighten 
the blackness of his offence, and now for the 
first time the man experienced a twinge of 
compunction for the theft. 
“ I will repay it,” he muttered. “ I swear 
before God that I will work my fingers to the 
bone to repay it.” And then again his 
spirits rose. He would be at Euston within 
a quarter of an hour, in time to get a sub- 
stantial meal before the train for the North 
started, and he was now conscious of an 
almost raging hunger. 
“ I remember how 1 used to eat after those 
single-stick bouts,” he muttered, and then 
a smile lit up his haggard face. £< And 
