y Tiffles in cunning imitation of Miss
Minford's handwriting. The long, elegant curves, and all the delicate
peculiarities of her chirography, taught by Miss Pillbody, had been
copied from the sample furnished by her note to Mrs. Crull. It ran
as follows:

MR. VAN QUINTEM:

DEAR SIR: Come to me at once, for I am in trouble.

PET.

The plan (Bog's contrivance all this) was to inquire at the gambling
houses where Mr. Van Quintem, jr., was most likely to be, and, when he
was found, to send this note in to him by a servant. Bog, having
delivered the note, was to withdraw to the sidewalk, lie in ambush, till
young Van Quintem came out, and then follow him to Miss Minford's
retreat. There he was to wait, and send a swift messenger to Mrs. Crull
and old Van Quintem. It was not known that young Van Quintem had ever
seen Miss Minford's handwriting; but, to make the game sure, the note
had been written with a skill worthy of a counterfeiter, or that most
dexterous of penmen, young Van Quintem himself.

Bog commenced operations about three o'clock in the afternoon--the hour
when the gambler and debauchee, who have been up all the previous night,
are ready to begin their feverish life again.

He first visited a snug establishment near the lower end of Broadway. It
was situated in the second story, over a nominal exchange office, and
was the favorite resort of down-town brokers, who, having gambled on
Wall street till the close of business hours, dropped in to flirt with
Fortune an hour or two before going home to dinner. Sometimes their
hour or two was protracted to six o'clock next morning, when they
staggered home to breakfast and a curtain lecture together. This Temple
of Faro was never impertinently molested by the police; and it was a
subject of remark, among people who thought they had been robbed there,
that there was never a policeman within sight of the door.

In the hallway of the second story occupied by this gambling saloon,
were a number of doors, which the experienced eye of the boy at once
decided to be blinds, or, in other words, no doors at all, but only
imitations. The appearance of the second story was that of a suite of
unoccupied offices. Whoever rapped at these blind doors, could obtain no
admission.

At the end of the hallway, Bog came upon a long window, which was
painted white on the inside. He saw, by a glance at the grooves of the
lower sash, that it was often raised. There was a