"Oh, yes," he said, briskly, "I can show you the way in a twinkling. You
just go down this alley till you come to the big house on the corner,
that has the windows all knocked out of it; then you turn and go down
that street till you get to the third crossing; then turn again to the
right, and you'll be on Fifth Avenue before you know it."
Had Mrs. Roberts been looking at his face, she would have seen the
wicked light dancing in his eyes over the thought that he had thus
mapped out for her a walk through the very worst portion of the city,
every step, of course, leading her further and further away from Fifth
Avenue. The sights that she might see, and the mishaps which might occur
to her,--a handsomely-dressed woman alone,--before she made her way
through the horrors of these streets were too much even for Nimble
Dick's imagination, who knew the locality well. He did not try to
calculate them, but gave himself up to the enjoyment of imagining how
long it would be before she would reach home if she followed his
directions. "She won't see no swallowing serpents that I knows of," he
reflected, gleefully; "but I'll miss my reckoning if she don't see what
will scare her worse than they would."
But Mrs. Roberts was already "scared.
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