, while he continued
aloud--'and you know after that, Captain, I daren't do it.'

'I tell you, you old fool, I've arranged it all; so get along there,
and show us the light up these confounded stairs. I suppose they never
mended the hole on the lobby?'

'Troth they didn't,' growled the dwarf; 'and it would be chaper for them
nor breaking their shins every night.'

I followed O'Grady up the stairs, which creaked and bent beneath us at
every step; the hand-rail, broken in many places, swung to and fro with
every motion of the stair, and the walls, covered with green, and damp
mould, looked the very picture of misery and decay. Still grumbling
at the breach of order incurred by my admission, the old man shuffled
along, wheezing, coughing, and cursing between times, till at length we
reached the landing-place, where the hole of which I heard them speak
permitted a view of the hall beneath. Stepping across this, we entered
a large room lighted by a lamp upon the chimney-piece; around the walls
were hung a variety of what appeared to be cloaks of a lightish drab
colour, while over each hung a small skull-cap of yellow leather.

'Don't you hear the knocking below, Mickey? There's some one at the
door,' said O'Grady.

The little man left the room, and as we were now alone, I expected some
explanation from my friend as to the place we were in, and the people
who frequented it. Not so, however. Phil merely detached one of the
cloaks from its peg, and proceeded to invest himself in its folds; he
placed the skull-cap on his head, after which, covering the whole with
a hood, he fastened the garment around his waist with a girdle of rope,
and stood before me the perfect picture of a monk of St. Benedict, as we
see them represented in old pictures--the only irregularity of costume
being, that instead of a rosary, the string from his girdle supported a
corkscrew and a horn spoon of most portentous proportions.

'Come, my son,' said he reverently, 'indue thy garment.' So saying,
he proceeded to clothe me in a similar manner, after which he took a
patient survey of me for a few seconds. 'You 'll do very well; wear the
hood well forward; and mark me, Jack, I 've but one direction to give
you--never speak a word, not a syllable, so long as you remain in the
house; if spoken to, cross your arms thus upon your breast, and bow
your head in this manner. Try that--perfectly--you have your lesson; now
don't forget it.'

O'Grady now, with