The landlord watched him with appreciative surprise.

He imagined himself to be familiar with every drink known to the taste of man, having had wide experience, but such an one as this he had never encountered before.
"What do you call it ?" he asked, when the other had finished his preparations.
"I call it a 'Help to Reformation,'" the stranger replied.

Then, with a sneer upon his face, he added, "It should be popular with your customers." Taking the drink with him into the verandah outside, he seated himself in a long chair and proceeded to sip it slowly, as if it were some elixir whose virtue would be lost by haste.

Some people might have been amused by the motley crowd that passed along the street beyond the verandah-rails, but Gideon Hayle, for such was his name, took no sort of interest in it.

He had seen it too often to find any variety in it.