XIV
Labouring evidently under the stress of some new and strange excitement, a man strode swiftly through the darkness of the night. He was a tall, spare individual, clothed from neck to heel in a long, loose raincoat that clung closely to his body, though the ends flapped freely in the wind. It was a dark, stormy night early in November, and although the storm pelted his uplifted face as he sped along, he never heeded the elements; nor did he notice that few pedestrians were abroad on a night that, had the weather been more propitious, would have been a gala night. As it was, the crowds were under cover. Street-cars were loaded to their limit, taxi-cabs and hansoms by the hundreds passed and repassed, so that any time he might have escaped this drenching by lifting his finger. But the st
