— XII —BOB HAMMICK
On the doorstep stood the man who had accosted Mr. Smithers on the occasion of his first visit to safe No. 226. He looked rather shabbier than he had done then; his hat was a little more on one side, and there was that about his general appearance which was more than ever suggestive of the prize-ring. Perhaps this peculiarity was accentuated by the fact that he had been drinking.
The two men confronted each other in silence, until the stranger broke the ice in his own fashion.
“Well? Know me? Or are you only trying to know me next time we meet again?”
It was then that Mr. Ludlow perceived that the stranger had been ministering to his thirst. Being himself a person of such rigid teetotal principles, it is possible that the discovery did not tend to prejudice him in th
