MY first few days' experience in my new position satisfied methat Doctor Dulcifer preserved himself from betrayal by a systemof surveillance worthy of the very worst days of the HolyInquisition itself.

No man of us ever knew that he was not being overlooked at home,or followed when he went out, by another man. Peepholes werepierced in the wall of each room, and we were never certain,while at work, whose eye was observing, or whose ear waslistening in secret. Though we all lived together, we wereprobably the least united body of men ever assembled under oneroof. By way of effectually keeping up the want of union betweenus, we were not all trusted alike. I soon discovered that OldFile and Young File were much further advanced in the doctor'sconfidence than Mill, Screw, or myself. There was a locked-uproom, and a continually-closed door shutting off a backstaircase, of both of which Old File and Young File possessedkeys that were never so much as trusted in the possession of therest of us. There was also a trap-door in the floor of theprincipal workroom, the use of which was known to nobody but thedoctor and his two privileged men. If we had not been all nearlyon an equality in the matter of wages, these distinctions wouldhave made bad blood among us. As it was, nobody having reason tocomplain of unjustly-diminished wages, nobody cared about anypreferences in which profit was not involved.

The doctor must have gained a great deal of money by his skill asa coiner. His profits in business could never have averaged lessthan five hundred per cent; and, to do him justice, he was reallya generous as well as a rich master.

Even I, as a new hand, was, in fair proportion, as well paid bythe week as the rest.

We, of course, had nothing to do with the passing of falsemoney--we only manufactured it (sometimes at the rate of fourhundred pounds' worth in a week); and left its circulation to bemanaged by our customers in London and the large towns. Whateverwe paid for in Barkingham was paid for in the genuine Mintcoinage. I used often to compare my own true guineas, half-crownsand shillings with our imitations under the doctor's supervision,and was always amazed at the resemblance. Our scientific chiefhad discovered a process something like what is calledelectrotyping nowadays, as I imagine. He was very proud of this;but he was prouder still of the ring of his metal, and withreason: it must have been a nice ear indeed that could discoverthe false tones in the doctor's coinage.

If I had been the most scrupulous man in the world, I must stillhave received my wages, for the very necessary purpose of notappearing to distinguish myself invidiously from myfellow-workmen. Upon the whole, I got on well with them. Old Fileand I struck up quite a friendship. Young File and Mill workedharmoniously with me, but Screw and I (as I had foreboded)quarreled.

This last man was not on good terms with his fellows, and hadless of the doctor's confidence than any of the rest of us.Naturally not of a sweet temper, his isolated position in thehouse had soured him, and he rashly attempted to vent hisill-humor on me, as a newcomer. For some days I bore with himpatiently; but at last he got the better of my powers ofendurance; and I gave him a lesson in manners, one day, on theeducational system of Gentleman Jones. He did not return theblow, or complain to the doctor; he only looked at me wickedly,and said: "I'll be even with you for that, some of these days." Isoon forgot the words and the look.

With Old File, as I have said, I became quite friendly. Exceptingthe secrets of our prison-house, he was ready enough to talk onsubjects about which I was curious.

He had known his present master as a young man, and was perfectlyfamiliar with all the events of his career. From variousconversations, at odds and ends of spare time, I discovered thatDoctor Dulcifer had begun life as a footman in a gentleman'sfamily; that his young mistress had eloped with him, taking awaywith her every article of value that was her own personalproperty, in the shape of jewelry and dresses; that they hadlived upon the sale of these things for some time; and that thehusband, when the wife's means were exhausted, had turnedstrolling-player for a year or two. Abandoning that pursuit, hehad next become a quack-doctor, first in a resident, then in avagabond capacity--taking a medical degree of his own conferring,and holding to it as a good traveling title for the rest of hislife. From the selling of quack medicines he had proceeded to theadulterating of foreign wines, varied by lucrative eveningoccupation in the Paris gambling houses. On returning to hisnative land, he still continued to turn his chemical knowledge toaccount, by giving his services to that particular branch of ourcommercial industry which is commonly described as theadulteration of commodities; and from this he had gradually risento the more refined pursuit of adulterating gold and silver--or,to use the common phrase again, making bad money.

According to Old File's statement, though Doctor Dulcifer hadnever actually ill-used his wife, he had never lived on kindterms with her: the main cause of the estrangement between them,in later years, being Mrs. Dulcifer's resolute resistance to herhusband's plans for emerging from poverty, by the simple processof coining his own money. The poor woman still held fast by someof the principles imparted to her in happier days; and she wasdevotedly fond of her daughter. At the time of her sudden death,she was secretly making arrangements to leave the doctor, andfind a refuge for herself and her child in a foreign country,under the care of the one friend of her family who had not casther off. Questioning my informant about Alicia next, I found thathe knew very little about her relations with her father in lateryears. That she must long since have discovered him to be notquite so respectable a man as he looked, and that she mightsuspect something wrong was going on in the house at the presenttime, were, in Old File's opinion, matters of certainty; but thatshe knew anything positively on the subject of her father'soccupations, he seemed to doubt. The doctor was not the sort ofman to give his daughter, or any other woman, the slightestchance of surprising his secrets.

These particulars I gleaned during one long month of servitudeand imprisonment in the fatal red-brick house.

During all that time not the slightest intimation reached me ofAlicia's whereabouts. Had she forgotten me? I could not believeit. Unless the dear brown eyes were the falsest hypocrites in theworld, it was impossible that she should have forgotten me. Wasshe watched? Were all means of communicating with me, even insecret, carefully removed from her? I looked oftener and oftenerinto the doctor's study as those questions occurred to me; but henever quitted it without locking the writing-desk first--he neverleft any papers scattered on the table, and he was never absentfrom the room at any special times and seasons that could bepreviously calculated upon. I began to despair, and to feel in mylonely moments a yearning to renew that childish experiment ofcrying, which I have already adverted to, in the way ofconfession. Moralists will be glad to hear that I really sufferedacute mental misery at this time of my life. My state ofdepression would have gratified the most exacting of Methodists;and my penitent face would have made my fortune if I could onlyhave been exhibited by a reformatory association on the platformof Exeter Hall.

How much longer was this to last? Whither should I turn my stepswhen I regained my freedom? In what direction throughout allEngland should I begin to look for Alicia?

Sleeping and walking--working and idling--those were now myconstant thoughts. I did my best to prepare myself for everyemergency that could happen; I tried to arm myself beforehandagainst every possible accident that could befall me. While I wasstill hard at work sharpening my faculties and disciplining myenergies in this way, an accident befell the doctor, on thepossibility of which I had not dared to calculate, even in mymost hopeful moments.