operation and the composure of the artist were so new to him that they
actually inspired him with terror. He slunk back, banged to the door;
and the stranger, putting up his implements, said, with a disdainful
laugh, to Beck, who had slunk away into a corner,--

"No. 7 knows well how to take care of No. 1. Lead on, and be quick,
then!"

As they continued to mount, they heard the body-snatcher growling and
blaspheming in his den, and the sound made Beck clamber the quicker, till
at the next landing-place he took breath, threw open a door, and Jason,
pushing him aside, entered first.

The interior of the room bespoke better circumstances than might have
been supposed from the approach; the floor was covered with sundry scraps
of carpet, formerly of different hues and patterns, but mellowed by time
into one threadbare mass of grease and canvas. There was a good fire on
the hearth, though the night was warm; there were sundry volumes piled
round the walls, in the binding peculiar to law books; in a corner stood
a tall desk, of the fashion used by clerks, perched on tall, slim legs,
and companioned by a tall, slim stool. On a table before the fire were
scattered the remains of the nightly meal,--broiled bones, the skeleton
of a herring; and the steam rose from a tumbler containing a liquid
colourless as water, but poisonous as gin.

The room was squalid and dirty, and bespoke mean and slovenly habits; but
it did not bespeak penury and want, it had even an air of filthy comfort
of its own,--the comfort of the swine in its warm sty. The occupant of
the chamber was in keeping with the localities. Figure to yourself a man
of middle height, not thin, but void of all muscular flesh,--bloated,