boot-worn hollow on
the floor beneath the window. The unusual length of the lower sash, and
the nearness of the sill to the floor, would permit persons to step into
the room easily when the window was raised.

Bog rapped thrice at this window. He had a vague idea--derived from
reading, perhaps--that three raps were an open sesame to mysterious
rooms the world over. The last rap had not ceased to vibrate on the pane
of glass, when the window was suddenly shoved up, as if by somebody
waiting on the other side.

A negro of intense blackness stood revealed. He took a hasty inventory
of Bog's old clothes, and then said, "Clare out, now!" He commenced to
close the window.

"I was told to give you a half dollar," said Bog, bethinking himself of
a powerful expedient, "if you would find out whether Mr. Van Quintem was
here, and hand him a letter."

The negro's eyes dilated, and his thick lips wreathed into a grin.

"Mr. Fan Squintem--a little feller with a big black mustache? I knows
him. Dunno wether he's in, 'L see fur ye." The negro paused. The
interrogatory, "Where's your half dollar?" could be plainly seen in his
great eyes.

"Here it is," said Bog.

The negro grinned his satisfaction, pocketed the coin, disappeared
through another door from which there exhaled an odor of cigars and mint
juleps, and returned, in a minute, with the intelligence, "He a'n't in,
Mister. P'a'ps you want to leave some word for him?"

Bog had no time to lose. He said, "Nothing partickler," and hurried off,
leaving the negro to puzzle over his half dollar.

At the next gambling saloon, near the junction of Broadway and Park Row,
Bog simplified his method of operations. Before making any inquiry of
the servant who answered his triple rap, he thrust a half dollar at him,
and then put his question. This plan saved surly looks and explanations.
Mr. Van Quintem was a well-known patron of the establishment, but had
not been there for a week: which was rather strange, the man
politely added.

Bog continued his search, walking as fast as he could. In second
stories, in third stories, in fourth stories, in the rear of ground
floors, in one or two basements, among all the more fashionable gambling
dens, which, at that period, lay between Fulton and Tenth streets, he
picked his way. His new system had drawn heavily upon his stock of loose
silver, and he had but two half dollars left. The question now was, how
to spend them?--for Bog knew of no mo