t in honour of the rescue of
Laidlaw--the returned convict, _alias_ ticket-of-leave man, as Tommy
called him--and that the males of the party should thereafter sleep in
the garden.

Need we say that the supper-party was jovial? We think not. The
"ticket-of-leave man" and the "tiger" were inimitable in their own
lines, and Sam came out so strong on the "pirits" of the Philippine
Islands that the tiger even declared himself to be satiated with blood!
As for Susy--she would have been an amply sufficient audience for each
of the party, had all the others been away, and the fang of old Liz
became riotously demonstrative, though she herself remained silent
gazing from one face to another with her glittering black eyes.

Finally the ladies retired to rest in the garret, and the gentlemen went
to sleep in the garden.

Ah! how very old, yet ever new, is the word that man "knows not what an
hour may bring forth!" Forces unseen, unthought of, are ever at work
around us, from the effects of which, it may be, human strength is
powerless to deliver.

That night, late--or rather, about the early hours of morning--a spark,
which earlier in the night had fallen from the pipe of a drunkard in the
public-house below, began to work its deadly way through the boarding of
the floor. For a long time there was little smoke and no flame.
Gradually, however, the spark grew to a burning mass, which created the
draught of air that fanned it.

It chanced that night that, under the influence of some irresistible
impulse or antagonistic affinity like a musical discord, Mrs Rampy and
Mrs Blathers were discussing their friends and neighbours in the abode
of the former, without the softening influence of the teapot and old
Liz.

"I smells a smell!" exclaimed Mrs Rampy, sniffing.

"Wery likely," remarked Mrs Blathers; "your 'ouse ain't over-clean."

But the insinuation was lost on Mrs Rampy, who was naturally keen of
scent. She rose, ran to the window, opened it, thrust out her
dishevelled head, and exclaimed "_Fire_!"

"No, it ain't," said her friend; "it's on'y smoke."

Unfortunately the two women wondered for a few precious minutes and ran
out to the court, into which, from a back window of the public-house,
smoke was slowly streaming. Just then a slight glimmer was seen in the
same window.

"Fire! fire!" yelled Mrs Rampy, now thoroughly alarmed.

"Smoke! smo-o-o-oke!" shrieked Mrs Blathers. The two women were gifted
with eminen