"More don't I. Pour me out another cup o' coffee, my lad, while I cut some more bread and scrape. Only to think o' my mate meeting you! And so Mary looks well, does she?" "Yes, sir." "And ain't very comfortable, eh?" "Oh no, sir! It's a very uncomfortable place." "Ah, I shall have to find her a place after all! She might just as well have said _yes_ last time, instead of going into a tantrum. I say, come; you ain't half eating. I shall write and tell her I've seen you." If I was half eating before, I was eating nothing now, for his words suggested discovery, and my being given up to Mr Blakeford: when, seeing my dismay, my host laughed at me. "There, get on with your toke, youngster. If I tell Mary where you are, you don't suppose she'll go and tell old Blakeford?" "Oh no, sir! she wouldn't do that," I said, taking heart again, and resuming my breakfast. "And I say, youngster, suppose you don't say _sir_ to me any more. I'm only a policeman, you know. I say, you were a bit scared last night, weren't you?" "Yes, sir--yes, I mean, I was very much afraid." "Ah, that's the majesty of the law, that is! Do you know, I've only got to go into a crowd, and just give my head a nod, and they disperse directly. The police have wonderful power in London." "Have they, sir?" "Wonderful, my lad. We can do anything we like, so long as it's men. Hundreds of 'em 'll give way before a half-dozen of us. It's only when we've got to deal with the women that we get beat; and that ain't no shame, is it?" "No, sir," I said, though I had not the faintest notion why. "You're quite right," he said; "it ain't no shame. What! Have you done?" "Yes, sir--yes, I mean." "Won't you have that other cup of coffee?" "No, thank you." "Then I will," he said, suiting the action to the word. "Well, now then, youngster, what are you going to do, eh?" "I'm going to try and find Mr Rowle's brother, sir, at a great printing-office," I said, searching my pockets, and at last finding the address given me. "Perhaps he'll help me to find a situation." "Ah, p'r'aps so. They do have boys in printing-offices. Now, if you were a bit bigger you might have joined the police, and got to be a sergeant some day. It's a bad job, but it can't be helped. You must grow." "I am growing fast, sir," I replied. "Ah, I s'pose so. Well, now lookye here. You go and see Mr Rowle, and hear what he says, and then come back to me." "Come back here?" I said, hesitating. "Unless you've got somewhere better to go, my lad. There, don't you mind coming. You're an old friend o' my Mary, and so you're an old friend o' mine. So, for a week, or a fortnight, or a month, if you like to bunk down along o' me till you can get settled, why, you're welcome; and if a man can say a better word than that, why, tell him how." "I--I should be very, very grateful if you would give me a night or two's lodging, sir," I said, "and--and I've got six shillings yet."