CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
HOW I CHANGED MASTERS TWICE IN TWO DAYS, AND AFTER ALL FOUND MYSELF IN PAWN.
It was scarcely four o'clock when my lord and master arose from his brief repose, and sallied through the rain and darkness back in the direction of the city.

He was far less anxious to salute the police now than he had been a few hours ago.

He slunk down the back streets, and now and then darted up a court at the sound of approaching foot steps; or retreated for some distance by the way he had come, in order to strike a less guarded street.
In this manner he pursued his way for about an hour, till he reached a very narrow street of tumble-down houses, not far from Holborn.

Down this he wended his way till he stood before a door belonging to one of the oldest, dingiest, and most decayed houses in all the street.

Here he gave a peculiar scrape with his foot along the bottom of the door, and then sat down on the doorstep.
Presently a voice came through the keyhole, in a whisper.
"That you, Stumpy ?" it said.
"Yas," replied my master.
"All clear ?" Stumpy looked up and down the street and then hurriedly whispered, "No." Instantly the voice within was silent, and Stumpy was to all appearance sleeping soundly and heavily, as if tired nature in him had fairly reached its last strait.
The distant footsteps came nearer; and still he slept on, snoring gently and regularly.