"No; at present I have no address."
"What do you mean?"
"I have been presented with the key of the street."
"Do you mean that you are impecunious?"
"I do."
The individual with the hat on who had not yet spoken to me, spoke to me now, with a decidedly unpleasant grin. "Stone-broke?" he said.
I did not like to turn myself inside-out to strangers, especially to such strangers: but I had recently had to do a good many things which I had not liked. Above all, I had begun to realise the truth of the adage which tells us that beggars must not be choosers.
"I am as nearly stone-broke as a man can be who is in possession of a fair variety of pawn-tickets, the clothes he stands up in, and elevenpence in cash."
There was some further whispering between the pair, then the individual with the hat on addressed me again.
"If you will step outside, in a few minutes we will speak to you again."