BLACK SHEEP!

BY THE AUTHOR OF "LAND AT LAST," "KISSING THE ROD,'
&C. &C.

BOOK III.

CHAPTER XV. AT THE TIDAL TRAIN.

"THERE'S a job for you to-day, Jim," said the
irreproachable Harris to Mr. James Swain,
when he presented himself at half-past eight
at Routh's house, according to his frequent
custom."

"I didn't come after no jobs this mornin',"
said Jim; " I come to see the missis."

"Ah, but you can't see her, she ain't up, and
the job is particular wanted to be done."

Jim looked moody and discontented, but
cheered up when Harris represented that he
might see Mrs. Routh on his return. The "job"
was the delivery of Routh's clothes and letters,
as directed, at his chambers in Tokenhouse-yard.
The boy was troubled in his mind, irresolute.
George Dallas's sudden illness, the photograph
he had seen, these things added to the
perplexity he was in already. Perhaps he had
better speak to Mrs. Routh first; he did not
know ; at all events, he might tell her what had
occurred yesterday, without mentioning the
portrait, and see what effect it had upon her. He
had thought about it all, until, between his
imperfect knowledge of facts, his untaught
intelligence, and his genuine but puzzled good will,
he was quite bewildered. He had brought with
him that morning, with a vague notion that it
might perhaps be advisable to show it to Mrs.
Routh, but a settled resolution to show it to
Mr. Dallas, the object which he kept carefully
secreted in the hole in the wall at home, and as
he trudged away City-wards, carrying a small
leather bag containing the required clothes and
letters, he turned it over and over in his grimy
pocket and grew more and more thoughtful and
depressed.

Arrived at Tokenhouse-yard, the clerk took
the bag from him, and suggested that he had
better wait, in case Mr. Routh should require
his further services. So Jim waited, and
presently Routh came out into the passage. Jim's
private opinion of Stewart Routh's character
and disposition has been already stated; of his
personal appearance he entertained an equally
low one, and much opposed to the general
sentiment. " An ill-looking, down-looking dog,
I call him," Jim had said to himself more
than once; " more like the Pirate of the
Persian Gulf, or the Bandit of Bokarer, I
think, than anybody as I knows out of the
pictures."

More ill-looking, more down-looking than
ever Jim Swain thought Stewart Routh when
he spoke to him that morning. His face was
colourless, his eyes bloodshot, the glance
troubled and wandering, his voice harsh and
uneven. He gave Jim a brief order to meet him
at the London-bridge railway station the same
evening, at a quarter to six. " I shall have a
message for you," said Routh. " Be punctual,
remember." And then he turned away abruptly
and went into his room, shutting the door
roughly.

"He ain't in the best of humours, even of his
own, and they're none on 'em good," thought
Jim, as he turned out of Tokenhouse-yard and
took his way westward again, keeping his hand
permanently in his pocket this time. A fresh
disappointment awaited him at Routh's house.
Mrs. Routh had gone out immediately after she
had breakfasted. Did she know he wanted to
see her? Jim asked. Harris was rather tickled
by the question.

"I say," he remarked, " you're getting on,
Jim; you'll be as impident as a cock sparrow
presently. I didn't happen to tell her; but, if
I 'ad, do you think she'd a stayed in to give you
the chance?"

"Yes I do; wot's more, I'm sure she would,"
said Jim, and walked moodily away, leaving
Mr. Harris in a fine attitude of surprise upon
the threshold. When that functionary finally
left off looking after the boy, and shut the door,
he did so to the accompaniment of a prolonged
whistle.

It was only ten o'clock, and Jim had been
told to go to Mr. Dallas's at eleven. The
interval troubled him; he could not settle his
mind to the pursuit of odd jobs. He did not
mind " hanging about;" he would hang about
Piccadilly till the time came. But when
Jim reached the house in which Mr. Felton
and Mr. Dallas lodged, he was surprised to
find it an object of lively curiosity to a
number of persons who were crowding the pavement,
notwithstanding the active interference of a
policeman, endeavouring to clear a passage
for two ladies whose carriage was before the