bloater at the office fire, and had a drop of
gin-and-water hot, and felt comparatively happy.

When the head chambermaid came, it turned out, as good luck would have
it, that Mr. Davager had drawn her attention rather too closely to his
ugliness, by offering her a testimony of his regard in the shape of a
kiss. I no sooner mentioned him than she flew into a passion; and when I
added, by way of clinching the matter, that I was retained to defend
the interests of a very beautiful and deserving young lady (name not
referred to, of course) against the most cruel underhand treachery
on the part of Mr. Davager, the head chambermaid was ready to go any
lengths that she could safely to serve my cause. In a few words I
discovered that Boots was to call Mr. Davager at eight the next morning,
and was to take his clothes downstairs to brush as usual. If Mr. D------
had not emptied his own pockets overnight, we arranged that Boots was
to forget to empty them for him, and was to bring the clothes downstairs
just as he found them. If Mr. D------'s pockets were emptied, then, of
course, it would be necessary to transfer the searching process to
Mr. D------'s room. Under any circumstances, I was certain of the head
chambermaid; and under any circumstances, also, the head chambermaid was
certain of Boots.

I waited till Tom came home, looking very puffy and bilious about the
face; but as to his intellects, if anything, rather sharper than ever.
His report was uncommonly short and pleasant. The inn was shutting
up; Mr. Davager was going to bed in rather a drunken condition; Mr.
Davager's friend had never appeared. I sent Tom (properly instructed
about keeping our man in view all the next morning) to his shake-down
behind the office-desk, where I heard him hiccoughing half the night, as
even the best boys will, when over-excited and too full of tarts.

At half-past seven next morning, I slipped quietly into Boots's pantry.

Down came the clothes. No pockets in trousers. Waistcoat-pockets empty.
Coat-pockets with something in them. First, handkerchief; secondly,
bunch of keys; thirdly, cigar-case; fourthly, pocketbook. Of course I
wasn't such a fool as to expect to find the letter there, but I opened
the pocketbook with a certain curiosity, notwithstanding.

Nothing in the two pockets of the book but some old advertisements cut
out of newspapers, a lock of hair tied round with a dirty bit of ribbon,
a circular letter about a loan socie