All this time we had been drifting slowly down the river on the slack of the tide. The night was now very dark and inclined to be foggy, so I turned the boat's head round, and began to pull towards town. "What was the scheme that was to be carried out to-night?" I questioned. "What are we going back for, and where are you taking me?" asked Parker suspiciously, counter-questioning. "I'm going back," I replied, "because it's getting very dark and promises to be foggy. Get on with your story, but do your best to cut it short." "I don't want to make it any longer than I can help," was the reply; "but if I don't tell it my own way I can't tell it at all. Well, that's the way the Dumpling talked to us, and there was no denying that what he said was true. And he did more than talk at meetings. He got hold of Smudgy and me and some more of us, and said if we'd throw in our lot with him he'd see we were paid something each week out of a fund that had been started in America and Germany and other places, for the benefit of agitators and workers in the cause of liberty all over the world. And he kept his word, too. We got it regular each week, and by and by he put us on to little jobs--I needn't stop to tell you about them now--that put more money in our way. We kicked at some of them at first, but he's a nasty man to argue with, and pointed out that we were helping the cause by taking money from the rich to use it for them as was working in the cause of the poor, and after that we said----" "You're rather long-winded, my friend," I interrupted; "and again I must point out to you that it's getting cold and foggier and late. Can't you cut the thing shorter yet, and come to the opium den and to-night's work?" "That's just what I was going to," replied Parker in an injured tone. "Perhaps I am a bit long-winded. The Dumpling used to say I was, and he's one of them clever ones what ought to know. He said once----" "Oh, never mind what he said!" I interrupted impatiently. "Get on quickly to the opium den and to-night's work. It's of that I wish to hear." "One night," continued Parker, "the Dumpling asked Smudgy and me if we'd like to stand in with him in a little scheme he'd got to make a pot of money. And this very night we was to meet in that opium den--us as was in it--to arrange things. I didn't half like the job, that's the fact, especially when I found that detectives were on the track. But the Dumpling isn't the sort of man you find it easy to say 'No' to, when he turns that north eye of his on you. Makes me feel quite helpless, he does, and cold all down my back." I nodded. "Yes, I can believe he's not a pleasant customer to come the wrong side of; but that's no excuse for you and Smudgy trying to murder me."