ning?"

Watching a favourable opportunity, Brackenbury dashed upstairs to the
higher regions of the house. It was as he had expected. He ran from room
to room, and saw Although the house had been painted and papered, it
was not only uninhabited at present, but plainly had never been
inhabited at all. The young officer remembered with astonishment its
specious, settled, and hospitable air on his arrival. It was only at a
prodigious cost that the imposture could have been carried out upon so
great a scale.

Who, then, was Mr. Morris? What was his intention in thus playing the
householder for a single night in the remote west of London? And why did
he collect his visitors at hazard from the streets?

Brackenbury remembered that he had already delayed too long, and
hastened to join the company. Many had left during his absence; and,
counting the Lieutenant and his host, there were not more than five
persons in the drawing-room--recently so thronged. Mr. Morris greeted
him, as he re-entered the apartment, with a smile, and immediately rose
to his feet.

"It is now time, gentlemen," said he, "to explain my purpose in decoying
you from your amusements. I trust you did not find the evening hang very
dully on your hands; but my object, I will confess it, was not to
entertain your leisure, but to help myself in an unfortunate necessity.
You are all gentlemen," he continued, "your appearance does you that
much justice, and I ask for no better security. Hence, I speak it
without concealment, I ask you to render me a dangerous and delicate
service; dangerous because you may run the hazard of your lives, and
delicate because I must ask an absolute discretion upon all that you
shall see or hear. From an utter stranger the request is almost
comically extravagant; I am well aware of this; and I would add at once,
if there be any one present who has heard enough, if there be one among
the party who recoils from a dangerous confidence and a piece of
Quixotic devotion to he knows not whom--here is my hand ready, and I
shall wish him good-night and God-speed with all the sincerity in the
world."

A very tall, black man, with a heavy stoop, immediately responded to
this appeal.

"I commend your frankness, sir," said he; "and, for my part, I go. I
make no reflections; but I cannot deny that you fill me with suspicious
thoughts. I go myself, as I say; and perhaps you will think I have no
right to add words to my example."

"On the co