but half done!--you've bungled. See, he's too sober by
half!"

"Sober? no, no--guess he's drunk--drunk as a gentleman. I say, now--what
must I do?"

"Do?" muttered the landlord, between his teeth, and pointing to Tongs,
who reeled and raved in his seat, "do as I do!" And, at the word, with a
single blow of his fist, he felled the still refractory jailer with as
much ease as if he had been an infant in his hands. The pedler, only
half conscious, turned nevertheless to the half-sleeping Tongs, and
resolutely drove his fist into his face.

It was at that moment that the nostrum, having taken its full effect,
deprived him of the proper force which alone could have made the blow
available for the design which he had manfully enough undertaken. The
only result of the effort was to precipitate him, with an impetus not
his own, though deriving much of its effect from his own weight, upon
the person of the enfeebled Tongs: the toper clasped him round with a
corresponding spirit, and they both rolled upon the floor in utter
imbecility, carrying with them the table around which they had been
seated, and tumbling into the general mass of bottles, pipes, and
glasses, the slumbering youth, who, till that moment, lay altogether
ignorant of the catastrophe.

Munro, in the meanwhile, had possessed himself of the desired keys; and
throwing a sack, with which he had taken care to provide himself, over
the head of the still struggling but rather stupified jailer, he bound
the mouth of it with cords closely around his body, and left him
rolling, with more elasticity and far less comfort than the rest of the
party, around the floor of the apartment.

He now proceeded to look at the pedler; and seeing his condition, though
much wondering at his falling so readily into his own temptation--never
dreaming of the mistake which he had made--he did not waste time to
rouse him up, as he plainly saw he could get no further service out of
him. A moment's reflection taught him, that, as the condition of Bunce
himself would most probably free him from any suspicion of design, the
affair told as well for his purpose as if the original arrangement had
succeeded. Without more pause, therefore, he left the house, carefully
locking the doors on the outside, so as to delay egress, and hastened
immediately to the release of the prisoner.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

FREEDOM--FLIGHT.

The landlord lost no time in freeing the captive. A few minutes suffi