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Show Shade of 1 nomas De Quincey! I stared at Verbruggen in horror. "You needn't worry yourself, Pumper," Pum-per," he said, very calmly; "poerWilkie Collins had to do it, and he attained a s;.od old age. I'm quite capable of tak-:aw tak-:aw care of myself. And now I'll tell you tie 'tory, and I'll cut it as short as pos-sib.'fi. pos-sib.'fi. Laudanum, my frienr' as you're probably "I've, has a f.vCiirly nasty taste. Thiistuii i.r u.Im , strongly flavored flavor-ed with Sevilio orange peel and it's sweetened; to the palate it much resembles re-sembles curacao, It was a year and a half ago, I was sitting smoking here, about an hour after midnight; this decanter was on the table in front of me. I had just received an early copy of the suppressed works of certain Elizabethan Eliza-bethan poets. I read every book, sir, before be-fore I place it on my shelves," 6aid Verbruggen; Ver-bruggen; "and at that moment I was deeply interested in what I was about. Suddenly heard the door of the room open. I looked up, and I saw a powerful power-ful ruffian a burglar evidently; a short crowbar was in one band, and with the raised forefinger of the other he imposed silence upon me. " 'Guv'nor,' said the man to me in a hoarse whisper, 'if you kick up a row, I'll brain ye.' "I am sixty-five. I had no intention whatever of kicking up a row, I knew perfectly well that I should have no chance in a struggle with an armed burglar. bur-glar. I determined to grin and bear it. " 'Won't you be seated? I said to my nocturnal visitor, moJioning him to the easy chair which you now adorn. "The man grinned. 'Guv'nor,' he said, 'I wants yer watch, and yer money, and yor plate and valyables. But fust, my-pippin, my-pippin, I'll have a drink with ye, just to show there's no ill feeling.' And then he seized the decanter, poured himself out a glass and swallowed it at a draught He smacked his lips, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and then he made a wry face. 'If that's yer favorite poison, guv'nor, I don't think much of it,' he said. 'And now we'll get to business. busi-ness. I'll trouble ye for yer watch.' " 'My friend,' I answered, as I placed the watch upon the table, 'I'm very fonfc of that old watch of mine. If you 11 leave me an address I shall be glad to redeem it at more than its value.' " 'It don't seem up to much,' replied the man, as he stowed it away in his pocket; 'but I'm always handsome to them as treats me handsome; and if you was to leave a five pun now with B!og-! B!og-! gins, as keeps the Goat and Compasses in - street, why you can hev it back. I cay't say no fairer nor that, can I, matey?' , , t " 'I'll make a arte of the address, I rsptied. 'and I'm much obliged to you. "I took down the address, and 1 made the process last as long as I could. " 'And now for yer money and yer jewelry,' said the man, in th same hoarse whisper. "I apologized to my visitor. I don t wear jewelrv,' I said; 'but you are welcome wel-come to my money.' I handed him a sovereign and a penny. It was all I had .bout me; for I had been to the Convivial Conviv-ial Cannibals that afternoon and some ingenious in-genious literary friends had eased me of all my loose silver at whist "The man in the fur cap didn t believe me. 'I'll hi.v to search ye, guv nor, he said, and he proceeded to do so. 'Ithort you wos a gentleman,' he said, contemptuously, contempt-uously, when the process was over. 'Guv'nor,' he went on, suddenly, im feeling powerful bad. Til take another glajsuif so be as jqu 'naze no objection. "What was l to do? He had got three-quarters three-quarters of an ounce of the very best laudanum in him already; that was probably almost enough to kill him, a second dose would render death a certainty. cer-tainty. I did not want to be the man's murderer, so, pretending to be about to pour the liquor out, I dropped tho decanter decan-ter upon the floor. " 'If you try that on agaiu, old man,' said the robber, with an oath, 'I'll make short work of you, and he glared at me like a wild beast. Then he staggered to the door and listened intently. He regained re-gained his chair with difficulty. 'I'm powerful bad, guv'nor,' he said, suddenly; sudden-ly; 'I've got a noise like bees a-swarraing in my ears, my sight's gone queer, and my inners is as cold as any stona' "I could see by his contracted pupils that the opium had already begun to act. " 'Guv'nor,' said the man; and then his bead rolled on his shoulder and he begaa to snore heavily. "I rushed from tho room. I knocked up Dr. Sholto MacScorcher, who lived three doors off. I told him of my visitor's accident.' He hurried into his consulting consult-ing room and returned with a mahogany box. " 'Get some warm water as quickly as possible, Mr. Verbruggen,' he cried. I did as he directed. Ho thrust a wooden gag, with a hole in it, into the burglar's mouth; then he pushed an elastic tube, a yard long, down his throat. By this time the man's face was nearly blue. He attached a stomach pump to the tube, and he pumped quarts of warm water into the man, and then he pumped it out. This process he repeated several times. " 'Pinch him all over," cried Dr. Mao-Scorcher; Mao-Scorcher; 'pinch as hard as ever you can. "By that time Mary, my housemaid, had appeared, and we pinched the unfortunate un-fortunate patient with all our might and main, until we could pinch no longer. Then MacScorcher poured a jug of cold water on his head; then he began shouting shout-ing in his ears; then he flapped him in the face with a wet towel as hard as he could; then he ordered Mary to make a lot of hot coffee, and he pumped that into the unhappy man's stomach; then he ran pins into him at frequent intervals. inter-vals. Finally, we took the man under tho arms, and so we dragged hitil along the empty streets to St. George's hospital hos-pital At noon I called to ascertain the fate of that nocturnal caller on me. They told me that he was out of danger, and I saw him, looking more dead than alive, in one of the hospital beds. " 'They tell m you saved my life, guv'nor,' said the invalid. 'I say, guv'-ror,' guv'-ror,' he added, with a sickly smile, ;you ain't a-going to split on a pore bloke?' "I reassmed him. " 'Thank you kindly, guv'nor,' he said; but if ever I taste gentlemen's tipple again, blarm me blue!' "That's his crowbar," said erbrug-geni erbrug-geni "I haven't seen him since.'- St. James Gazette. TheIeIicloa Mutton. There is no more delicious breakfast than an English muffin, served, as it should be, hot. after being torn apart and toasted. The broken surface must be crisp and daintily brown. A dish of strawberries, a plate of toajted muffins, with fresh eggs and coffee or a glass of rich milk, will make a breakfast for an epicure. An English muffin is. of course, unfit for the table before it is toasted; by the process of cooking it is not thoroughly done in the center. When served as it should be, split and toasted, it is justly the pride of Jb EDrliah hoosw?-; MIGHT ADVENTURE. u lr not often see a room like Ver- JcnX I spent the afternoon there ;tber dav, and you could not peril per-il single inch of the walls. There book shelves on every side; book "s jutted out into the room itself; ipon many of the shelves the books ranged two deep and such booksl i in my life did I feel so feloniously 1 as upon the occasion of my visit rliruggen. I were you, V.," I said, "I should !i my visitors when I bade them by." only laughed good naturedly; and b cahuiy offered to lend me any I might take a fancy to. Of course because if I borrowed one of ngjen's books I should certainly r return it to him. There are cir-"ances, cir-"ances, you know, in which one "t trust one's self; and to read one :rbruggen's books without injuring duaie, one would have to wear a P'ioe and a new pair of white kid ianese paper, type wnlch does not one's eyes water but does make mouth do so, margin, rough dges, J bindings, etc. I gloated overall 1 'bings, X feasted my eyes upon aal etchings and inserted engrav China paper, till light failed us: tn we sat on either side of the "able fireplace and talked about rj0ok3 till the clock struck 6. I 5 ,"alf past 7, and I rose to go, eroraggen would not permit my tiire without something to keep 'M out, and he gave me a glass of 1 sherry, which was particularly :oub. , v Jleh hetoed himself from another 1 aot say anything, but somehow ; Jer I resented it, and, having fin-1 fin-1 my sherry, I stretched out my ard that special decanter of is a very old friend, so I could J'hout offense; but, to my aston-"5ti aston-"5ti he calmly pushed it out of my vitor I had, Pumper," remarked pKen, "once tried that special j , mine he had reason to re- Puzzled; curiosity is my master I looked at my watch; I had a minutes to spare. "Give me the ' ' v- I said. 'ped himself to another glass, ' tt and smacked his lips. I 831(1 "Verbruggen, "the 668 in the decanter is lauda-jMe lauda-jMe from the very best Turkey |