tones, whether Mr. Grabman lived in
the chimney-pots.

"'St! 'st! Don't make such a rumpus, or No. 7 will be at you."

"What do I care for No. 7? And who the devil is No. 7?"

"A body-snatcher!" whispered Beck, with a shudder. "He's a dillicut
sleeper,--can't abide having his night's rest sp'ilt. And he's the
houtrageoustest great cretur when he's h-up in his tantrums; it makes
your 'air stand on ind to 'ear him!"

"I should like very much to hear him, then," said the stranger,
curiously. And while he spoke, the door of No. 7 opened abruptly. A
huge head, covered with matted hair, was thrust for a moment through the
aperture, and two dull eyes, that seemed covered with a film like that
of the birds which feed on the dead, met the stranger's bold, sparkling
orbs.

"Hell and fury!" bawled out the voice of this ogre, like a clap of near
thunder, "if you two keep tramp, tramp, there close at my door, I'll
make you meat for the surgeons, b---- you!"

"Stop a moment, my civil friend," said the stranger, advancing; "just
stand where you are: I should like to make a sketch of your head."

That head protruded farther from the door, and with it an enormous
bulk of chest and shoulder. But the adventurous visitor was not to be
daunted. He took out, very coolly, a pencil and the back of a letter,
and began his sketch.

The body-snatcher stared at him an instant in mute astonishment; but
that operation and the composure of the artist were so new to him that
they actually inspired him with terror. He slunk back, banged to
the door; and the stranger, putting up his implements, said, with a
disdainful laugh, to Beck, who had slunk away into a corner,--

"No. 7 knows well how to take care of No. 1. Lead on, and be quick,
then!"

As they continued to mount, they heard the body-snatcher growling and
blaspheming in his den, and the sound made Beck clamber the quicker,
till at the next landing-place he took breath, threw open a door, and
Jason, pushing him aside, entered first.

The interior of the room bespoke better circumstances than might have
been supposed from the approach; the floor was covered with sundry
scraps of carpet, formerly of different hues and patterns, but mellowed
by time into one threadbare mass of grease and canvas. There was a good
fire on the hearth, though the night was warm; there were sundry volumes
piled round the walls, in the binding peculiar to law books; in a corner
stood a tall desk, of the fas