"Bide a wee, as the Scotch say, my son. I strode off along the road he
indicated, and then, instead of making the detour he had kindly sketched
out for my benefit, chose the first turning to my left, and, quite
convinced he would soon pass that way, took up my position in the
portico of a house which lay well in shadow. It stood a little back from
the side-path, and a poor little Arab sleeping on the stone step proved
to me the policeman was not over and above vigilant in that
neighbourhood.
"I waited, Heaven only knows how long, thinking all the time I must be
mistaken, and that his home did lie in the direction he took; but at
last, looking out between the pillars and the concealing shrubs, I saw
him. He was looking eagerly into the distance, with such a drawn, worn,
painful expression, that for a moment my heart relented, and I thought I
would let the poor devil go in peace.
"It was only for a moment, however; touching the sleeping boy, I bade
him awake, if he wanted to earn a shilling. 'Keep that gentleman in
sight, and get to know for me where he lives, and come back here, and I
will give you a shilling, and perhaps two, for your pains.'
"With his eyes still heavy with slumber, and his perceptions for the
moment dulled, he sped after the figure, limping wearily on. I saw him
ask my late companion for charity, and follow the gentleman for a few
steps, when the latter, threatening him with his stick, the boy dodged
to escape a blow, and then, by way of showing how lightly his bosom's
load sat upon him, began turning wheels down the middle of the street.
He passed the place where I stood, and spun a hundred feet further on,
then he gathered himself together, and seeing no one in sight,
stealthily crept back to his porch again.
"'You young rascal,' I said, 'I told you to follow him home. I want to
know his name and address particularly.'
"'Come along, then,' he answered, 'and I'll show you. Bless you, we all
knows him--better than we do the police, or anybody hereabouts. He's a
beak and a ward up at the church, whatever that is, and he has
building-yards as big, oh! as big as two workhouses, and--'"
"His name, Munro--his name?" I gasped.
"Harringford."
I expected it. I knew then that for days and weeks my suspicions had
been vaguely connecting Mr. Harringford with the mystery of the
Uninhabited House.
This was the hiding figure in my dream, the link hitherto wanting in my
reveries concerning River Hall. I had been looking for this--waiting for
it; I understood at last; and yet, when Munro mentioned the name of the
man who had thought it worth his while to watch my movements, I shrunk
from the conclusion which forced itself upon me.
"Must we go on to the end with this affair?" I asked, after a pause, and
my voice was so changed, it sounded like that of a stranger to me.
"We do not yet know what the end will prove," Munro answered; "but
whatever it may be, we must not turn back now."
"How ought we to act, do you think?" I inquired.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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