Cheyne looked up, stopped, and kept his eyes fixed on the one thing visible in the zenith, that solitary bird.
Then, while he was still watching the crow, down through the streets rang a very different sound:
"Fire!"
CHAPTER XI.
[DAWN.]
Cheyne looked up and down. He had taken little or no notice of the street. Now for the first time he observed that it was a quiet by-street of inferior order. There was but one other person visible, and that a man of the working class, who yelled at the top of his voice:
"Fire!"
Cheyne saw this man a few hundred yards in advance of him, standing in front of a three-storey house. Again the man yelled "Fire!" and then ran up and knocked loudly at the door of one of the houses. Cheyne walked on rapidly in the direction of the house, and saw no symptom of fire. When Cheyne came up the man was still knocking at the door. There was an area, and into this Cheyne now looked. He could see nothing unusual, but he heard a crackling angry noise.
"Fire!" shouted the man again, as he thundered at the door. Then he turned round and saw Cheyne. "Do you know where the station is?" he asked.
"No," answered Cheyne; "I am a stranger here."