man, with a dirty white apron on, who had followed him down the
passage, "no, Mr. Landlord, I am not easily scared by trifles;
but I don't mind confessing that I can't quite stand _that_."

It occurred to young Holliday, the moment he heard these words,
that the stranger had been asked an exorbitant price for a bed at
The Two Robins, and that he was unable or unwilling to pay it.
The moment his back was turned, Arthur, comfortably conscious of
his own well-filled pockets, addressed himself in a great hurry,
for fear any other benighted traveler should slip in and
forestall him, to the sly-looking landlord with the dirty apron
and the bald head.

"If you have got a bed to let," he said, "and if that gentleman
who has just gone out won't pay your price for it, I will."

The sly landlord looked hard at Arthur. "Will you, sir?" he
asked, in a meditative, doubtful way.

"Name your price," said young Holliday, thinking that the
landlord's hesitation sprang from some boorish distrust of him.
"Name your price, and I'll give you the money at once, if you
like."

"Are you game for five shillings?" inquired the landlord, rubbing
his stubby double chin and looking up thoughtfully at the ceiling
above him.

Arthur nearly laughed in the man's face; but, thinking it prudent
to control himself, offered the five shillings as seriously as he