y with you."

I was staggered. I did not relish this unaccountable change. If I had
persuaded him to go, it would have been all right; but to find him thus
ready and eager was unnatural. I felt as if I were accountable for this
change in his opinions and actions, and immediately, strange to say,
experienced a tendency to dissuade him.

"But, Jack, you forget what you said to me some hours ago."

"No, I don't," he answered, gloomily.

"Perhaps we'd better think over it again."

"No, we won't. Come, Bob, don't show the white feather now. Don't
waste time. It's about dawn. It's too late to reason. You have
tempted me, and I have given in."

Saying this, he seized me by the collar and pushed me before him.

And now the mysterious events which I am about to relate began. The
conduct of my friend Jack on this occasion was in itself a mystery. He
was by nature the gentlest and most inoffensive of human beings, except
when circumstances required him to act vigorously: then he was a lion--
irresistible. Since the commencement of our acquaintance, which was of
many years' standing, he had never by word or look given me the
slightest cause for anger; and yet here he was grasping me violently by
the collar and pushing me forcibly before him.

I did not get angry. My conscience smote me. I said to myself; "Ah!
this is the result of evil conduct. I have tempted Jack to act against
his judgment; he is no longer what he was."

Instead of melting under this feeling, I became hardened. I stepped
out, and so dragged my friend after me down the back stairs which led to
the lower part of the house, where the servants slept. Jack whispered,
"All right," and let go his hold.

"Now we must be cautious," I said, in a low tone, as we proceeded to
traverse the passage, on each side of which were the rooms occupied by
the servants. We took off our shoes and advanced on tip-toe. At the
far end of the passage we heard a sound like a trombone. That was the
butler; we knew of his snoring propensities, and so were not alarmed.
His door was open; so was his mouth--I could see that plainly, as I
passed, by the dim light of a candle which he always burned at night.
The butler was excessively fat. I merely mention this because it
accounts for the fact of his not awaking when we unlocked the street
door. Fat people are not easily wakened.

The lock of the door was an old-fashioned large one. It grated slightly
as Jack turn