shelf a large funnel,
an auger and a faucet, he carried them and his boots into the back yard,
and having locked the door behind him, walked off into the darkness.

In a short time he reappeared, leading a horse, to which was harnessed a
low wood-sled. Upon this sled he firmly lashed the barrel, and gathering
up the other implements he took the horse by the bridle and led him
away down the silent street; for the town of Sulphide as yet boasted
neither a lighting system nor a police force--or, rather, the police
force was accustomed to betake himself to bed with the rest of the
community--so Tom had the dark and empty street entirely to himself.

In a few minutes he drew up at the rear of Yetmore's store, where,
leaving the horse standing, he proceeded to count four planks from the
edge of the window. Having marked the right plank, he took the auger,
and crawling beneath the store, set to work boring a hole up through the
floor. Presently the auger broke through, coming with a thump against
the bottom of the barrel above, when Tom withdrew the instrument, and
taking out his knife enlarged the hole considerably.

So far, so good. Next he set a bucket beneath the hole, took the faucet
between his teeth in order to have it handy, and inserting the auger, he
set to, boring a hole in the bottom of the barrel. Soon the tool popped
through, when Tom hastily substituted the faucet, which he drove firmly
in with a blow of his horny palm.

The putty-faced boy inside the store stirred in his blankets, muttered
something about "them pigs," and went to sleep again.

Tom waited a moment to listen, and then drew off a bucket of oil. As
soon as this was full he replaced it with the other bucket and emptied
the first one into the barrel on the sled. This process he repeated
until the oil began to dribble, when he carefully knocked out the
faucet, and having collected his tools and emptied the last bucket into
the barrel, he again took the horse by the bridle and silently led him
away.

Arrived once more in the widow's back yard, Tom unshipped the barrel and
went off to restore the horse to its stable. He soon returned, and
having unlocked the back door and re-lighted his candle, he proceeded to
get the barrel into the house and back upon its stand; a work of immense
labor, rendered all the harder by the necessity of keeping silence. Tom
was a man of great strength, however, and at last he had the
satisfaction of seeing the barrel o