his twinkling eyes. Paul thought he resembled a grotesque bird.

"Wot did yer do it for?" he asked.

"This," said Paul, holding out a grubby palm in which lay the
precious cornelian heart.

His friend blinked at it. "Wot the blazes is the good of that?"

"It's a talisman," replied Paul, who, having come across the word in
a book, had at once applied it to his treasure.

"Lor' lumme!" cried Barney Bill. "And it was for that bit of stuff
yer ran the risk of being flayed alive by yer loving parents?"

Paul was quick to detect a note of admiration underlying the
superficial contemptuousness of the words. "I'd ha' gone through
fire and water for it," he declared theatrically.

"Lor' lumme!" said Barney Bill again.

"I got summat else," said Paul, taking from his pocket his little
pack of Sunday-school cards.

Barney Bill examined them gravely. "I think you'd better do away
with these."

"Why?"

"They establishes yer identity," said Barney Bill.