wedding
present, solemnly tolling the hour of eleven. The hour Mr.
Kuppenheimer had named was one hour agone. To have kept the
appointment, he should have started two hours before.

Another half hour had flown before Mr. Middleton, having paused to
partake of some chow-chow recently made by Mrs. Stackelberg and highly
recommended by her liege, finally left the house, carrying a pistol in
either hand. The night was somewhat cloudy, but although there was
neither moon nor stars, it was much lighter than on some nights when
all the minor luminaries are ablaze, or the moon itself is aloft,
shining in its first or last quarter, a phenomenon remarked upon by an
able Italian scientist in the middle of the last century and by him
attributed to some luminous quality that inheres in the clouds
themselves. Mr. Middleton was walking along engrossed in thoughts of
the scene of domestic bliss he had lately quitted and in dreams of the
even more delightful home he hoped to some day enjoy with the young
lady of Englewood, when he suddenly became cognizant of four
individuals a short distance away, comporting themselves in an unusual
and peculiar manner. Cautiously approaching them as quietly as
possible, he perceived that it was two robbers despoiling two citizens
of their valuables, one pair standing in the middle of the street, one
on the sidewalk, the citizens with their hands elevated above their
heads in a strained and uncomfortable attitude, while each
robber--with back to him--was pointing a revolver with one hand and
turning pockets inside out with the other.

With a resolution and celerity that astonished him, as he afterwards
dwelt upon it in retrospect, Mr. Middleton rushed silently upon the
nearest robber, him in the street, and dealt him a terrible blow upon
the head with the barrel of a pistol. Without a sound, the robber sank
to the earth, whereupon the citizen, whether he had lost his head
through fear, or thought Mr. Middleton a new and more dangerous
outlaw, fled away like the wind. Snatching the bag of valuables in the
unconscious thief's hands, Mr. Middleton made toward the other robber,
who, to his astonishment, hissed without looking around:

"What did you let your man get away for, you fool? Try and make
yourself useful somehow. Hold this swag and cover the man, so I can
have both hands and get through quick."

Taking the valuables the robber handed him, Mr. Middleton with
calmness and deliberation placed t