I think that it was at this point I began to reckon on the success
which, after many failures and some mischances, was yet to reward
my efforts.

As I prepared to enter the old house at nightfall, I allowed myself
one short glance across the way to see if my approach had been
observed by the man whose secret, if secret he had, I was laying
plans to surprise. I was met by a sight I had not expected. Pausing
on the pavement in front of me stood a handsome elderly gentleman
whose appearance was so fashionable and thoroughly up to date, that
I should have failed to recognize him if my glance had not taken in
at the same instant the figure of Rudge crouching obstinately on the
edge of the curb where he had evidently posted himself in distinct
refusal to come any farther. In vain his master, - for the
well-dressed man before me was no less a personage than the whilom
butt of all the boys between the Capitol and the Treasury building,
- signaled and commanded him to cross to his side; nothing could
induce the mastiff to budge from that quarter of the street where
he felt himself safe.

Mr. Moore, glorying in the prospect of unlimited wealth, presented
a startling contrast in more ways than one to the poverty-stricken
old man whose curious garb and lonely habits had made him an object
of ridicule to half the town. I own that I was half amused and
half awed by the condescending bow with which he greeted my offhand
nod and the affable way in which he remarked:

"You are making use of your prerogatives as a member of the police,
I see."