"That in't fair!" the man squawked, his eyes rolling.

"Of course it isn't!" Monk agreed, not loosening his grip in spite of the man's gasping and struggling. "There are two of them—and there's only one of you!" He grinned at the man savagely, as if a suddenly brilliant idea had occurred to him. "I've got it! I'll string you up, and then when you're nearly gone—when your lungs are bursting and your face is blue and you're almost on fire—I'll cut you down, throw a bucket of water over you, give you a glass of brandy, wait till you're all right... then do it again! Once for each girl. Is that fairer?"

"I din't do nuffink!" The man saw death in Monk's face and was nearly sick with fright. "They're fine! They're alive and well, I swear ter Gawd!"

"Don't swear. Show me!"

"They in't 'ere! I sold 'em... passed 'em on like. I give 'em a chance ter better theirselves. Get out o' Lunnon and go somewhere better for their 'ealth."

"Where, precisely?" Monk snarled.

"East! Across the water. Honest ter Gawd!"

Monk jerked him up again harshly, hearing his teeth clatter. "Where?"

"France! They're gorn ter France!"

Monk knew what that would be for. From there they would be snipped to God knows where: the white slave trade.

"When?" He slammed the man back against the wall. He regretted it instantly. He could have knocked him senseless, even broken his neck; but then he would be able to tell him nothing. "When did they leave?"

"Yest'y! They went down to the docks... Surrey Docks... yest'y night." He thought he was staring death in the face. "They'll go out on the afternoon tide terday."

"Ship?" Monk demanded. "What ship? Tell me you don't know and I'll send your teeth out through the back of your neck!"

"The S-Summer Rose" the man stammered. "So 'elp me Gawd!"

Monk dropped him and he slid to the floor, lying there sobbing for breath. Monk turned and ran from the room, out across the dripping yard and along the alley overhung with creaking boards and sagging half roofs onto the wider, crooked street He had about an hour and a half before the tide. He would like to have gone home and changed into respectable clothes and collected some more money, but there was no time.