The Watchers

ing at the south corner of Burleigh Street, Strand. The night was tropical in its heat, and though every window stood open to the Thames, there was not a man, I think

k was playing at ninepins down the middle with half a dozen decanters and a couple of silver salve

ty of the room rather than the utterance of any particular person; and I have a clear recollection that everything, from the candles to the glasses on the tables and the broken tobacco pipes on the floor, was of a dazzling and intolerable brightness. This brightness distressed me particularly, because just opposite to where I sat a large mirror hung upon the wall between two windows. On each side was a velvet hol

ments on to the floor, until there was only hanging on the wall the upper rim, a thin curve of glass like a bright sickle. I remember that the noise and hurley-burley suddenly ceased, as though morning had come unawares upon a witches' carnival and that all the men present stood like statues and appeared to

as I was raising it to my lips Mr. Macfarlane's pa

ed Mr. Macfarlane, amid

acfarlane wit

nderstand,

latter on to the floor, he tried to scoop the ball out of the glass with the point of Clutterbuck's s

game," said Mr. Macfarlan

id I, "for a sillier game

appened to be holding the last of his decanters in his hand, and he swung it to and fro. "Gentlemen," he repeated, and as if to keep me company, he let the deca

ember, even if I ever knew it; I saw him for the first time that evening, and I have only once seen him

familiarity to a new acquaintance I judge he was

ds it: the brass handle shone like a gold ball in the sun. I looke

e door. But I do not notice it

aid my acquaintance,

e only door in the worl

go," and with his forefinger h

ed the handle," said I

erve, "and the truth. Someone has turned the handle. Now who?

ey had, however, removed their wigs, and their shaven heads gleamed unpleasantly. Others by the window were vociferating the chorus of a drinking song. Li

eone outsid

utterbuck's timorous visitor?" He drew his watch from his fob: "We may hazard a guess at the sex, I think, but for the rest---- Is it some fine l

her chair with all the speed her petticoats allowed. She would

upon my shoulder and held me back

long word which I judged to be "ratiocination"--"is admirable. Never was logician more precise. It is not a fine lady from St. James

instant he stepped back. The door was in a line with the wall against which my chair was pl

ury Lane that ever I saw," said he, and L

ifteen years, with a red fisherman's bonnet upon his head and

you to London? Have you come to see the king in his golden crown? Has Captain Hathaway

about the lad and were plying him with questions. But he did not answer the questions. No doubt the noise and the lights, and the presence of these glittering gentlemen confused the lad,

but I would sooner t

Where are your manners, Dick," cried Clutterbuck, "that you t

n?" asked Mr

ur story," c

s shoulders against the panels, while the others caught at the lad's hesitation as at a new game, an

f Star Castle with Captain Hathaway of his Majesty's Invalids, and was bored to death with his dissertations on Diodorus Siculus. Two years! The boy m

own by paralysis and never moved til

ng back to his noise and laughter, though there was a ring of savagery in it very strange to his friends. "Well,

ain, and Clutterbuck turned u

r story and hav

looking from one to othe

"You shall tell it to us all, or not at all. Bring that table, forward, Macfarlane! You shall stand on the table Dick,

boy protested, and made for the door. But he was thrust back, seized

e mantelshelf. "Take your seats, and no whispering in the side boxes, if yo

w up their chairs round the table and sat looking upwards towards the boy, with a great expectation of amusement, just as people watc

and your friends are a pack of bullies. The

press upon me his gratitude, and his arm lengthened out and grew until it touched the ceiling. Then it dwindled and shrank until again it was no more than a boy's arm on a boy's shoulder. I was so struck with this curious phenomenon that I broke

oken to me before clapped his hand in the small of my back as I leaned forward, and shouted some ill-bred word that, though might he die of small-pox if he had ever met me before, he would have known me from a thousand by the tales he had heard. Ho

that stood at the edge of the sea. Cullen Mayle, Parmiter called the youth who had sat in the stocks, son to that Adam whose death had so taken Lieutenant Clutterbuck with surprise. But I could not make head or tail of the bu

to the beginning again and again and relate once more what he had already told. But I remember that he spoke with a high intonation, and rather quickly and with a broad accent, and that even then I was extremely sensible of the unfamiliar parts from which

ng. I looked up, and there was Dick Parmiter upon the table, crying like a c

er," said he, swearing an oath, "no,

orehead with wet handkerchiefs, and spilling brandy over his face in attempts to pour it into his mouth--every one except Clutterbuck, who never moved nor changed in a single line of his face, from his fixed expression of ange

o, you are hungry," and Dick nodded "yes" to each sentence. "Well, Dick, you shall eat

simply, and Clutterbuck's fac

word,"

chair. He did not look any more at Clutterbuck; he made no appeal to anyone in the room; but though his legs still faltered from weakness, he walked silently out

uck!" cried Macfarl

to his head,

r lack of a meal

, "if he will take them from

the highest floor of the house; the stone stairs stretched downwards flight after flight beneath me. There was no sound anywhere upon them; the boy had gone. I came back to the room. L

said, without s

the street, when we parted. I saw no roses blossoming in the streets as I walked home, but as I looked