With this intention, he dressed himself in a stout, heavy overcoat, and, locking the door hurriedly, walked up the street.  On he went, as though his life depended upon whether he reached a certain square at a certain time.  He looked at nothing save some far-distant object, from which, as it approached, he withdrew his eyes, and fixed them on an object yet distant.  Turning a corner, a collision took place between him and another man, who appeared to be in as much haste as himself.  He was about to proceed, when he who had met him so abruptly struck him very familiarly upon the shoulder, saying, as he did so, “Harry, how are you?-good luck-tin-lots of it-watch-haste.”

The person thus addressed was not long in discovering who it was that spoke to him, and from his words and actions that he had reason to be in some haste.  It was he for whom he was in search; and, being aware that the nature of the case demanded despatch, he cordially grasped his hand, and, without another word between them, they in a short time reached the dwelling of Mr. Lang.

“What are the facts now?” inquired Harry, after having narrated the incident that had occurred since he left, namely, the watchman’s visit.

“Then you think there is no danger in my staying here?” inquired Bill.

“Not in the least,” replied Harry; “for I positively asserted that you was not here, and strongly intimated that I knew no person of your name.  Danger! there is none; so proceed, friend Bill,—­but a little wine.”

Wine is an indispensable with all rogues; it nerves to lawlessness, and induces them, when under its influence, to commit acts which in their sober moments they would scorn to perform.

The wine-glass emptied, Bill proceeded in his narrative.

“When I left here, I started intending in a direct course to go home.  Musingly I walked along, cursing my fate, and several other things, too numerous to mention, and speculating upon the probable success of our scheme, till I arrived in front of the old broker’s.  He was just putting up his iron-clamped shutters.  I was on the opposite side, at some distance, yet not so far but that I plainly saw him enter and pack snugly away in his little black trunk divers articles of apparently great worth.  I carelessly jingled the last change in my pocket, of value about a dollar or so; and the thought of soon being minus cash nerved me to the determination of robbing the broker.  Thus resolved, I hid myself behind a pile of boxes that seemed placed there on purpose, till I heard the bolt spring, and saw the broker, with the trunk beneath his arm, walk away.  As he entered that dark passage, ‘Fogg-lane,’ I pulled my cap down over my face, and dogged him, keeping the middle of the passage; and, seeing a favorable opportunity, I sprang upon him from behind, and snatched the box; then left him to his fate.

“I ran off as fast as my legs, urged on by the cry of ‘stop thief,’ would carry me.  Notwithstanding the speed at which I ran, I found the crowd bearing down upon me; and, my hope almost failing, I had resolved to give in and suffer the consequences, when, seeing a dark lane, I ran into it, then dodged behind a pump.  The crowd ran on; I found I had escaped.  Now, Harry, a friendly shake in honor of my good luck.”