nto the rooms of a man who lived over me, but was away at the time,
and there let him wait. Lo! and behold! when I came to look about the
tin, I found that, instead of having ninety pounds at the banker's, I
had overdrawn my account some hundred pounds or more; so that paying was
quite out of the question, and I was just going to ring the bell, and
beg Mr. Pigskin to call again in a day or two, by which time I
should have been 'over the hills and far away,' when Shrimp made his
appearance.

"'Please, sir, there's ever so many more gents called for their money.
There's Mr. Flanker, the whipmaker, and Mr. Smokem, from the cigar-shop,
and Trotter, the bootmaker, and--yes, sir, there's a young man from Mr.
Tinsel, the jeweller: and, oh! a load more of 'em, if you please, sir.'

"This was agreeable, certainly; what to be at I didn't know, when
suddenly a bright idea came across me.

"'What have you done with 'em?' asked I.

"'Put 'em all into Mr. Skulker's rooms, sir.'

"'That's the ticket,' said I. 'Now, listen to me. Look out, and see if
there are any more coming;--if there are, show 'em up to the others;
take 'em a couple of bottles of wine and some glasses, and tell them
I must beg them to wait a quarter of an hour or so, while I look over
their bills; and as soon as the room is full, come and tell me.'

"In about ten minutes Shrimp reported that he could not see any more
coming, and that he thought 'all the gents I dealt with was upstairs'.

"'That's the time of day!' exclaimed I, and taking out the key of the
room, which Skulker had left with me, in case I might like to put a
friend to sleep there, I slipped off my shoes, and creeping upstairs as
softly as possible, I locked the door. 'Now then, Shrimp,' said I, 'run
and fetch me some good stout screws, a gimblet and a screwdriver.' He
was not long getting them, and in less than five minutes I had them all
screwed in as fast as if they had been in their coffins, for they were
kicking up such a row over their wine that they never heard me at work.
Well, as soon as I had bagged my game, Shrimp and I packed up the traps
and sent them to the coach-office--found a coach about to start in half
an hour, booked ~318~~ myself for the box, and then strolled back to
see how the caged birds were getting on. By this time they had come to a
sense of their 'sitivation,' and were hammering away, and swearing, and
going on like troopers; but all to no purpose, for the door was a