and you said you wanted
something to read.

"Well, Waterford and I recovered in a few days from our first reverse,
and decided to have another shot; and so we were rather glad of the
quiet evening at the office to make our new attempts. We half thought
of writing a piece between us, but decided we'd better go on our own
hooks after all, as our styles were not yet broken in to one another.
We agreed we had better this time both write on subjects we knew
something about; Waterford accordingly selected `A Day in a Sub-Sub-
Editor's Life' as a topic he really could claim to be familiar with;
while I pitched upon `Early Rising,' a branch of science in which I
flatter myself, old man, _you_ are not competent to tell me whether I
excel or not. Half the battle was done when we had fixed on our
subjects; so as soon as every one was gone we poked up the fire and made
ourselves snug, and settled down to work.

"We plodded on steadily till we heard the half-past nine letters dropped
into the box. Then it occurred to us we had better turn down the lights
and give our office as deserted a look as we could. It was rather slow
work sitting in the dark for a couple of hours, not speaking a word or
daring to move a toe. The fire got low, but we dared not make it up;
and of course we both had awful desires to sneeze and cough--you always
do at such times--and half killed ourselves in our efforts to smother
them. We could hear the cabs and omnibuses in Fleet Street keeping up a
regular roar; but no footsteps came near us, except once when a
telegraph boy (as we guessed by his shrill whistling and his smart step)
came and dropped a telegram into the box. I assure you the click the
flap of the letter-box made that moment, although I knew what it was and
why it was, made my heart beat like a steam-engine.

"It was beginning to get rather slow when twelve came and still nothing
to disturb us. We might have been forging ahead with our writing all
this time if we had only known.

"Presently Waterford whispered,--

"`They won't try to-night now.'

"Just as he spoke we heard a creak on the stairs outside. We had heard
lots of creaks already, but somehow this one startled us both. I
instinctively picked up the ruler from the table, and Waterford took my
arm and motioned me close to the wall beside him. Another creak came
presently and then another. Evidently some one was coming down the
stairs cautiously, and in the dark too, for