to close the windows, now that the mysterious prowler is secured? We
shall hear all about him when the gentlemen return, and they will
not stay out of doors longer than is necessary."

They began to pour back into the room, while she was speaking,
laughing, and talking, all together shaking the snow-powder from
their hair and hands, and anathematizing the cold and their thin
boots. The particulars of the midnight disturbance were quickly
disseminated. The ebon sentinels had, directed by the barking of
their canine associates, discovered, under a holly hedge on one side
of the yard, a man lying upon the earth, and almost buried in the
snow he seemed not to have strength to throw off. He was either
drunk or so nearly frozen as to be incapable of answering coherently
their demands as to what was his name and what his business upon the
premises. The interrogations of the gentlemen and the ungentle
shakings administered by his captors elicited nothing but groans and
muttered oaths. He could not, or would not, walk without support,
and to leave him where he was, or to turn him adrift into the public
road, would be certain death. Therefore Mr. Aylett had ordered him
to be confined for the night in a garret room. In the morning he
might be examined to more purpose.

"But he ought to have a fire, and something hot and nourishing to
drink!" exclaimed Mrs. Button, upon hearing the story. "He will
freeze in that barn of a place--poor wretch!"

"I imagine he has no need of additional stimulants," said Mrs.
Aylett, dryly, again resorting to her smelling-bottle. "From what
the gentlemen say, I judge that he had laid in a supply of caloric
sufficient to last through the night. And the first use he would