hat
shower were falling, conceiving themselves very unlikely to be repaid
for a thorough wetting, they temporarily withdrew to the Station-house,
or, as the act would now be expressed, "raised the blockade" for a very
limited period.

Within five minutes after their departure, and when the wind and the
rain had fairly begun to play together at rough gymnastics in the
street, there was evidence that eyes probably _had_ been observing the
elderly gentleman with the limp, walking past the house a little too
frequently. At all events, a man of tall figure, wrapped in an oil-skin
coat, and with a round black hat and umbrella, emerged from the front
door and dashed rapidly up the street. He was gone but a few minutes,
and returned in the very height of the storm, in a carriage which drew
up at the door. Perhaps ten minutes more, and some of the neighbors, who
had been observing these singular movements, saw the same tall man, with
an elderly lady and two younger ones, come out and enter the carriage,
which, after taking on two large trunks, drove away at ordinary speed.
The conclusion to which these good people came, was that the party were
obliged to go out in the storm for the purpose of catching one of the
late evening trains out of the city; and they may have been very nearly
correct in the conjecture.

The storm passed over, and the summer evening came on. The two
detectives came back to their places, varying their disguises for the
evening. The house seemed all quiet, as before, and L---- came to the
conclusion that there was either no one within or that the inmates were
disposed to lie very close, as they did not even open the front windows
to admit the clear evening air, cooled by the shower, or to look at the
splendid sunset sky. So time passed on until nine o'clock, when the two
detectives agreed to adopt the "ride-and-tie" principle--one keeping
strict watch until midnight and the other until morning. This
arrangement was duly carried out; and L----, who had taken the turn till
midnight, again resumed his place at six o'clock. All was quiet--no one
had entered or left the house, and L---- became thoroughly satisfied
that it must be unoccupied. He might have haunted the house in one
disguise or another, retaining the same correct opinion, until doomsday,
had not one of the neighboring houses contained one of those inquisitive
gentlemen (sometimes depreciatingly called "meddlers") who can never be
content without k