Page:Sylvester Sound the Somnambulist (1844).djvu/175

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THE SOMNAMBULIST.
121

bore," said he, "add thed we'll go to bed, for you look, Syl, as if you were dearly dead beat."

Sylvester, as Tom promptly opened the third bottle, acknowledged that he felt rather tired, but he was aroused by the production of the skeleton of a squirrel, which Tom caused to crack nuts by pinching its tail.

"I'll read you the history of this little swell," said Tom. "Whed alive he was a rub ud."

And he got his portfolio, and having placed several sheets of manuscript before him, commenced reading the life and adventures of "Moses the Squirrel."

He had, however, scarcely read the second sentence, when, on looking up, he found his friend Sylvester asleep.

"Hollo!" he cried, "Syl!"

"Really," said Sylvester, "you must excuse me."

"Well, I kdow you bust be tired," said Tom, restoring his precious manuscript to the portfolio. "Ebty the glass, add we'll be off. Travellidg idvariably bakes a fellow sleepy. I kdow what it is. I'll just put these thidgs od wud side, add thed see you to your roob.—Dow thed," he added, as soon as this feat had been accomplished, and he and Sylvester left the study, and when he had pointed out Sylvester's room, he shook hands with him, exclaiming, "God bless you!—good dight."



CHAPTER XVI.

TOB AND HIS WOBAD.

About two hours after the delivery of that remarkable sentence with which the preceding chapter concludes, Policeman D 99, an extremely intelligent and raw-boned person, whose acuteness in looking after cooks with money sufficient to take a public-house, surpassed that of any other member of the force—saw something—he could not at first see distinctly what it was, it being some distance from him, but he knew that he saw something—running along the parapet of the houses on his right.

Of course the trump of duty called him instantly to the spot, and having obeyed the call, he stationed himself opposite, from which point he clearly beheld the figure of a man, with nothing apparently on him but his shirt.