"Thanky, sir. I'll attend to it at once, sir," replied the old fellow, pocketing the coin, and moving briskly away to give the order. In another minute he was back again, laying the cloth and setting out the dishes, while Narkom improved the time of waiting by straying round the room and looking at the old prints and cases of stuffed fishes that hung on the oak-panelled walls. It still wanted a minute or so of being a quarter-past five when the old man bore in the tea tray itself and set it upon the waiting table; and, little custom though the place enjoyed, Narkom could not but compliment it upon its promptness and the inviting quality of the viands served. "You may go," he said to the waiter, when the man at length bowed low and announced that all was ready; then, after a moment, turning round and finding him still shuffling about, "I say you may go!" he reiterated, a trifle sharply. "No, don't take the cosy off the teapot--leave it as it is. The gentleman I am expecting has not arrived yet, and--look here! will you have the goodness to let that cosy alone and to clear out when I tell you? By James! if you don't----Hullo! What the dickens was that?" "That" was undoubtedly the tingle of a handful of gravel against the panes of the window. "A sign that the coast is quite clear and that you have not been followed, dear friend," said a voice--Cleek's voice--in reply. "Shall we not sit down? I'm famishing." And as Narkom turned round on his heel--with the certainty that no one had entered the room since the door was closed and he himself before it--the tea cosy was whipped off by a hand that no longer shook, the waiter's bent figure straightened, his pale, drawn features writhed, blent, settled into placid calmness and--the thing was done! "By all that's wonderful--Cleek!" blurted out Narkom, delightedly, and lurched toward him. "Sh-h-h! Gently, gently, my friend," he interposed, putting up a warning hand. "It is true Dollops has signalled that there is no one in the vicinity likely to hear, but although the maid is both deaf and dumb, recollect that Mrs. Condiment is neither; and I have no more wish for her to discover my real calling than I ever had." "Mrs. Condiment?" repeated Narkom, sinking his voice, and speaking in a tone of agitation and amazement. "You don't mean to tell me that the old woman you employed as housekeeper when you lived in Clarges Street is here?"