[Illustration: page345]
"_The traps! the traps!_" vociferated some one in the adjoining room;
"_Douse the glims! stash it--stash it!_" was the general exclamation in
ours: but before the party could effect their purpose, the principals
were in safe custody: and the reader (i.e. pocket-book) containing
all the stolen property, preserved from the flames by the wary eye and
prompt arm of the _indefatigable_ Bishop. Before any one was allowed to
depart the room, a general muster and search took place, in which poor
Bob Transit felt most awkward, as some voluptuous sketches found in his
pocket called forth
She dies; sad outcast! heart-broke by remorse;
Pale, stretch'd against th' inhospitable doors;
While gathering gossips taunt the flesh less corse,
And thank their gods _that they were never w--res!_
~346~~the severe animadversion of his worship, the beak, who lamented
that such fine talent should be thus immorally applied: with this brief
lecture, and a caution for the future, we were allowed to escape; while
almost all the rest, male and female, were marched off to an adjoining
watch-house, to abide the public examination and fiat of the morrow.
Of all the party, old Crony was the most sensibly affected by the late
rencontre; twenty bottles of soda-water could not have produced a more
important change.
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