The Missing Link

y of the white mansion. One night he leaned against the fence and watched a procession of guests alighting from their vehicles. Splendid motors dashed up, and loads of gaily-dressed ladi

vast garden, and the glowing mansion, and hearing the hubbub of cheerful voices and the laughter, he had

rge, red, boosy nose, with, a length of elastic to hold it in its place. One of the guests had dropped it. Nickie put

music and laughter shook passions loose within him. Another little kink in his brain might have made a

that vision of fair women, and

most of what w

oo, into the

st, and unde

Song, sans Singe

ips when a young fellow garbed as Romeo,

s, I beg your pardon, I'm sure. Should hav

Nickie politely. "My fa

lt, en

meo; "that's a stunnin'

a bettah

as. Mr. Crips had for

rom sleeping in a rubbish bin. Yes. Best Weary Willie I've seen. But aren't you com

" said Nicholas, smit

r a friend,

ts to revolve. Romeo's words had suggested possibilities. Mr. Crips rarely wasted time making up his mind.

mined to make a night of it at the expense of the host of "White-cliff." To avoid unpleasantness at the door, Nickie boldly climbed

enter such a house. It was accepted as a quaint effort of humour. Weary Willie was

e plainly visible. The fact that they were only tops, and not whole socks, was not to be missed, as they had worked up, and an inch of bare ankle protruded. Nickie's coat was an old black Beaufort, from which two buttons' hung on grey threads, which was split half-way up the back, and from below the tails of which fluttered strips of torn lining. He wore no

under his ridiculous hat, and from various strands dangled fragments of his last couch under the boat shed. Nickie had nothing of the pa

ar of failure in an enterprise of this kind never worried him. He walked across the grand ball-room, swaggering

e with er poor m

ary Queen of Scots peered at Nick

" on his absurd programme, and the quaintly assorted pair joined in the waltz. How, where and when Nickie the

rakish Nicholas had a discriminating eye where the sex was concerned. Mar

he Yarra-banker was his waggish begging. When he had danced, before

, all twins? Just a copper, lydie. The bailiffs is in, lydie, an' if I don't take 'orne nine-pence for the rent

" she said, "this poor man claims king's bounty for his th

morsel iv turkey's passed me lips for seven days. Just a few pence, sir, to b

ntributed silver. There was an impression in the ballroom that the sum of the quaint tramp's collection wou

and conditions of women. Ro

r, you know. Ran' into you at the gate-what? By gad, y

n' under No. 3 wharf, fifth plank from the corner. Would yer

hey're all on to you. Dolly herself's delighted. Yes, you'r

tive corf," said Nickie. "Would you please

!" said Romeo, and h

mplaint wherever a few guests were assembled, and in view of the vast amusement he was giving was allowed any license in reason. The offerings of the charitable he deposited in the tail pocket

nd he was no longer able to walk a chalk line as wide as a tram with an certainty, and had got into the way of clinging to the

t of Mr. Nicholas Crips. It was the prize for the best sustained character, which the host had offered his guests in a frivolous moo

lumbago in the feet. I've bin bed-ridden fer ten years, lydie, and I lost both me l

e nose. He also excited doubts and misgivings by the depth of his thirst and h

e always developed tremendous belief in his own magnificence, strutted about and fondly fancied himself a king. He was wholly and completely drunk when he charge

e him. A Sir Toby Belch got the thick end of the bottle in his natural fatness, and collapsed with a groan. "Remove the bo

c effort to sustain the character. Weary Willie was as drunk as a lord. He tittered a wild Indian whoop, and

f yeh don' play 'Go' Shave King' I'l

d Nickie the Kid promptly knocked the poor monarch on the head. Then rude hands seized Nic

Banklands, and daylight was streaming in, a weary

"the-eh-gentleman who wa

im?" asked the h

ing in the

und Nickie the Kid sleep

pulled to

as!" he

llie," answered

nsult my guests, and you promised when I gave yo

e," said Nickie, "when di

or I'll give you o

ainly, I'll leave the grounds. Th

the contributions of the guests, in his h

illy, dear ole Billy, dear, ol

road, and the morning sun glittered on the emblem