ave met an
conkered such a difficulty. You'll take a bit of cat's meat in your
pocket, you know."

"Hall right!" exclaimed the young housebreaker, with a reckless toss of
his shaggy head, as he laid his hand on the jug: but the elder scoundrel
laid his stronger hand upon it.

"Come, Slogger; no more o' that. You've 'ad too much already. You
won't be fit for dooty if you take more."

"It's wery 'ard on a cove," growled the lad, sulkily.

Brassey looked narrowly into his face, then took up the forbidden jug,
and himself drained it, after which he rose, grasped the boy by his
collar, and forced him, struggling, towards a sink full of dirty water,
into which he thrust his head, and shook it about roughly for a second
or two.

"There, that'll sober you," said the man, releasing the boy, and sending
him into the middle of the room with a kick. "Now, don't let your
monkey rise, Slogger. It's all for your good. I'll be back in 'alf an
hour. See that you have the tools ready."

So saying the man left the cellar, and the boy, who was much
exasperated, though decidedly sobered, by his treatment, proceeded to
dry himself with a jack-towel, and make preparations for the intended
burglary.

The house in regard to which such interesting preparations were being
made was buried, at the hour I write of, in profound repose. As its
fate and its family have something to do with my tale, I shall describe
it somewhat particularly. In the basement there was an offshoot, or
scullery, which communicated with the kitchen. This scullery had been
set apart that day as the bedroom of my little dog. (Of course I knew
nothing of this, and what I am about to relate, at that time. I learned
it all afterwards.) Dumps lay sound asleep on a flannel bed, made by
loving hands, in the bottom of a soap-box. It lay under the shadow of a
beer-cask--the servants' beer--a fresh cask--which, having arrived late
that evening, had not been relegated to the cellar. The only other
individual who slept on the basement was the footman.

That worthy, being elderly and feeble, though bold as a lion, had been
doomed to the lower regions by his mistress, as a sure protection
against burglars. He went to bed nightly with a poker and a pistol so
disposed that he could clutch them both while in the act of springing
from bed. This arrangement was made not to relieve his own fears, but
by order of his mistress, with whom he could hold communication at n