Adventure, December 1914 — page 109: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A Man With Nine Lives With his blue papers he directed the other’s attention to a sheet of parchment which lay open in front of him. Adair eyed the speaker in silence, then continued: - “It was past one o’clock on a February night, or rather morning. I had hung about the Strand till after closing time, hoping that fortune might send me—well, T’ll say a crust of bread. It didn’t; so after the public-houses had closed, and the street was cleared, I went down to the Embankment. “It wasn’t nice weather. There was a pretty cool wind, and I was in a state which madeit seem cooler. Rain had been falling, and a mist was rising from the river—cheer- ful climatic conditions for a man who pro- posed to get a little sleep on a seat by the water. “‘T dare say it was because I was so hungry that I felt as if I were chilled to the bone. I marched along the pavement, slapping myself with my arms, trying to get some of the ice out of my body. ‘“‘As I was nearing Waterloo I had a little adventure. I had noticed an elderly man in front of me, walking alone. Suddenly there came toward him from across the road three individuals. One went for him from behind, another from the front; the third began to put his hands all over him.”’ “They were robbing him, you mean?” “It looked uncommonly like it. It was no business of mine. And when a man gets where I had, principles of abstract morality don’t worry him. But an idea occurred to me. If I tackled those three gentlemen the exercise might make me warm. So I went for them hammer and tongs; and they—after two or three lively moments —took to their heels without giving me quite so much exercise as I had beenin- clined to hope they would.” The lawyer interposed with an inquiry. “How tall are your You seem to me to be a sort of understudy for a giant, which makes it so odd that you should have occu- pied the position you did.” “Y’m rather under six foot two, and I suppose that February morning I was trained about as fine asI could be. Neither of those three gentlemen could use their fists, and exercise of that kind wasn’t to their liking. “T was left alone with the old gentleman. Perhaps it was because they had not left him in a very cheerful condition BES: he _ Sketches on me. 107 seemed not over disposed to be civil. ‘Are you another of the robbers?’ were the first words he addressed to me. “T explained to him that I wasn’t. He looked me up and down as well as he could, © and then remarked, ‘if you will see me home I'll give you twopence.’ It was a generous offer, with which I closed. I escorted him to his chambers in Mitre Court. ‘“‘He had another good look at me as he handed me the twopence at the street door, and he said: ‘My name is Jerningham Creed. I’m on the second floor; you'll see my name on the board. If you'll come to see me at half past nine o’clock I may have something to say to you.’ I went at half past nine and—he offered me the pose tion of clerk!” “That must have been a rather curious interview. I should like to have seen it.” “Tt was rather by way of curiosity, the first interview I had with Mr. Jerningham Creed. When I got into the room he looked at me all round and all over as if I were some oddity he had paid money to see. Then he remarked, ‘You’re a gentleman,’ and presently added, ‘without five shillings worth of clothing.’ “IT told him that I trusted his second statement was incorrect. I hoped that if I offered my wardrobe for sale I should get more for it than five shillings, since what I was wearing represented everything I had in the world. “Then he asked me questions. I an- swered some of them, some of them I told him were no business of his. Just as I expected that he was going to ask me to take myself off, and perhaps give me sixpence, he observed: “ ‘T’ll make you-my clerk, and I'll pay you thirty shillings a week. You can begin this morning. I'll give you anote to a man I know, who sells second-hand clothing; he’ll give you some better clothes than those you have on, and I’ll deduct the price of them from your salary.’ Before I had quite realized the situation I was calling on the man he knew.”’ ‘You don’t mean to say that he was able to fit you out of stock?” “He wasn’t—that was the trouble. He had garments which he said had been made for a gentleman who was all of six foot; but I fancy that must have been a short six foot, because they were inclined to be However, as Mr. Creed’s MICLOOOK C©