through the grated window and fell upon us.

Then he turned and knelt, with me still clasped in his hands. And so
that night, and with it the crisis of Tom Drift's life, was passed.

There was no more difficulty now for Jim Halliday. Tom even gave me up
when he heard how I had come into my master's possession.

Then he asked about Charlie, and Jim told him all he knew. And so the
weeks went on, and hope once more lit up Tom Drift's face. How could I
help rejoicing in the share I had had in this blessed work of
restoration?

Alas! how fleeting is this world's satisfaction!

A short time afterwards, only a week or so before the termination of Tom
Drift's imprisonment, my master was returning home from the gaol, tired-
out after his day's work. His way lay over a place half brickfield,
half common, across which a narrow footpath went. We had got half way
over when suddenly a dreadful sensation seized me. I was slipping
through the bottom of my pocket! Though I had a watered ribbon attached
to me my master always carried me loose in his waistcoat pocket, with
never a suspicion of the hole that was there. But now that hole seemed
suddenly to expand in order to let me through.

Lower and lower I slipped. I tried to scream, I endeavoured to attract
my master's attention. But all in vain. He strode unconsciously on,
never giving a thought to me or my peril. I held on as long as I could.
Then I dropped. If only I could have fallen on his foot, or struck his
knee as I descended! But no. I slid quietly down, scarcely grazing his
trousers, and just out of the reach of his boot. For a moment I hoped
wildly he would see me as I lay at his feet. Alas! he walked heedlessly
on, leaving me on my back on the footpath, powerless to cry after him,
and not daring to guess what would become of me.

In fact, reader, I was lost.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

HOW I WAS UNEXPECTEDLY ENLISTED IN A NEW SERVICE, IN COMPANY WITH AN
IRISHMAN.

The first thing I was conscious of, after partially recovering from the
agony, mental and bodily, of my late accident, was a sharp tugging at my
handle.

"Watch! I say, watch!" I heard a voice whisper, "what's to be done?"
It was the watered ribbon.

"How should I know?" I growled; "if you had done your duty we should
never have been here!"

One is always ready to blame somebody for everything that happens amiss.

"Oh, yes, I dare say," it replied; "if you hadn't poked your nos