until John's stock of ammunition gave out.

The lecturer had ransacked the Society, Astor, and Mercantile libraries,
and stuffed himself with facts touching the interior of Africa, so far
as that mystery had been explored. Fortified with these facts, and a
lively imagination, he found no difficulty in satisfying the curiosity
of his auditors on every point; and answered questions of all sorts,
which were fired at him even thicker than the peas, without the least
hesitation.

When the exhibition was over, every clergyman present signed a
certificate declaring that they had been highly entertained and
instructed by the Panorama of Africa, and Mr. Wesley's able lecture;
that they considered the painting a masterpiece of moral Art, and
cordially recommended it to the patronage of an enlightened public.

CHAPTER II.

BY STEAM.

Tiffles had selected, as his first field of active operations, the State
of New Jersey. His large number of relatives (the Tiffleses were
prolific on the female side) and friends, and occasional creditors,
scattered through New England and New York, effectually barred him from
all that territory. New Jersey, then Pennsylvania, then the West--those
were the great topographical features of his campaign.

For his initiatory performance, he had chosen a quiet little town less
than thirty miles from the city, on a line of railway. If his panorama
was to be a hopeless failure at the very outset, Tiffles wanted to be
within striking distance of New York. He was sanguine of success; but,
like a prudent general, he looked after his lines of retreat.

To this small town in New Jersey, with which the fate of the great
enterprise was to be indissolubly linked, Tiffles had sent a large stock
of posters and handbills. He had previously corresponded (free of
expense both ways) with that universal business man of every American
village, the postmaster, and, through him, had engaged Washington
Hall--the largest hall in the place, capable of holding six hundred
people--at five dollars for one night, with the refusal of two
nights more.

The name of the hall and the night of exhibition were written in blank
spaces on the posters and handbills with red chalk, in a fine commercial
hand, by Tiffles himself; and, for a small consideration, the postmaster
had agreed to stick up the posters on every corner; also on the post
office and the three town pumps; and to distribute the handbills in
every house. These l