A PALPIT AT NG

“I don't sce any gas, Doctor.”

“Gas, ch? Why, you are a pretty chap to expect such a thing i this part of the house ! We should all be I)umt i our beds, or hlown into next week ; no. no, best in the dark. You've got matches? Yes, and a candle? All ght ! Good-night again,” and this time he was really gone.

I listened until the Tast sound of his foot- steps had died away, and then procecded to make a survey ol my surroundings. There was really nothing awe- INspIring - my new quarters. An inviting bed, with a gayv silken cider-down stretched across its coverlet, was the reverse of terrifving, but hefore testing 1ts good pomts, T decided to make a hasty mvestigation around. — On inspecting the match-box; to begin with, T experienced a sheht shock s 1t contaimed exactly three specimens, and, laying them carefully side by side, like the corpses on the shining sands, within casy reach of my hand; T fervently trusted they were good of thenr kind. | opened a deep cupboard 1 the corner, and cjected an enormous dressing-gown which confronted me with outstretched arms, and made me feel a little uncomfortable. No

CACSERIES GEF VICIOUS FPOREFR-TFHRUS IS,

resistance being offercd to a serics of vicious poker-thrusts which 1 bestowed under the bed, T manfully extinguished the candle

(there was only about an inch and a half of

it, and T thought it prudent to reserve it for

INTLRVILZTE, 515

possible emergencies), and got between the sheets,

Here T lay for half an hour or so, watching the antic shadows of the firclight on wall and caling, tossing and plunging round and round, and workmg mysell up into a state of rest- lessness about as far removed from repose as can 1)c imagined. 'l‘hc demon of unrest had In vam I thumped plll()W and tumcd from side to side ; I was fairly on the gud eize for something to happen, and, after ten minutes” more fruitless attempts to sleep, I tumbled out of bed with a groan, wrapped myself in the thick dressing- cown which had startled me a short time and, raking together the dying fire into a comfortable blaze, 1 scttled m\sdf n the casy chair before it an(l, with my feet on another, resigned myself to wakefulness.

On the table i front of me were a few hooks odd volumes of Waverley T found they were and, opening one listlessly, 1 bewan to read. In five minutes, I must record, with duce apologics to dear old Sir Walter, that a delicious sense of drowsiness began to steal over me; in ten, the chaste

| e,

Rebecea was pelting the Templar with ginger-bread nuts,

while her wounded knight gobbled up a venison pasty as i he liked it

Alas, portentous drcam! T found mysclf suddenly wide awake again, this time with the appalling conscious- ness that I was ravenously hungry. On making this dis- covery, [ sat bolt upright i sheer desperation. Tknew what 1t meant well enough—that sleep was now really out of the question for me till my cravings were satisfied.

I reflected that T had eaten nothing since midday, and that I had fully mtended an attack on a noble sirloin which had attracted my attention on the dining- room stdeboard soon after T had entered thc house. In the confusion which followed my arrival, however, 1 had forgotten my supper ;