III





There was at this time in the city of Melbourne, in Australia, a
wooden building, above the door of which was a board inscribed
"GYMNASIUM AND SCHOOL OF ARMS." In the long, narrow entry hung a
framed manuscript which set forth that Ned Skene, ex-champion of
England and the colonies, was to be heard of within daily by
gentlemen desirous of becoming proficient in the art of
self-defence. Also the terms on which Mrs. Skene, assisted by a
competent staff of professors, would give lessons in dancing,
deportment, and calisthenics.

One evening a man sat smoking on a common wooden chair outside the
door of this establishment. On the ground beside him were some tin
tacks and a hammer, with which he had just nailed to the doorpost a
card on which was written in a woman's handwriting: "WANTED A MALE
ATTENDANT WHO CAN KEEP ACCOUNTS. INQUIRE WITHIN." The smoker was a
powerful man, with a thick neck that swelled out beneath his broad,
flat ear-lobes. He had small eyes, and large teeth, over which his
lips were slightly parted in a good-humored but cunning smile. His
hair was black and close-cut; his skin indurated; and the bridge of
his nose smashed level with his face. The tip, however, was