well as they are known to them, and there are very few officers, in spite of their clever disguises, who go out upon such an errand as this, but what are tumbled to,' i. e., recognized the instant they are seen; and it is generally pretty well guessed at amongst the fraternity and their friends, who it is that is wanted,' and what business the slops' are out on.

"Out of breath, and greatly excited, she exclaimed as she entered the dirty, foul hole of a room,

"It's all up, Ben. We are done for. There's Grab-em at one passage and Boney at the other. I know their game: they are just waiting for some other men before they come on to us. I always told you I didn't fancy this job. Something or another hung on my mind, and I never thought it would come off a second time without being bowled out!'

"Hold your croaking, old tongue, will you?' roared the enraged and disappointed Ben Richie. 'We don't want to know what you thought about it before it was done, but what's to be done now that it is done?'

"It's no use thinking at all about it,' impatiently put in Somersault: let us make away with the dog as quick as possible.'

"Yes, but how?' eagerly asked Bugle-eye, who was evidently greatly alarmed at the sudden turn of fortune. It's quite sure we shall never save him and ourselves too.'

"Drown him," cried a female.

"But how?' again shouted the Eye.

"Why, throw him into the Thames, to be sure, you fool,' sharply responded the woman.

"That's easier said than done, Jack-daw,' returned Ben, with a savage growl.

"Now, look here,' said the calculating Somersault: there's no time to be lost. Tie the dog's mouth up, and put him in a sack; but don't stand jawing about it; but let us do it at once.'

"How about getting him over the Wharf wall?' still persisted Bugle-eye, apparently determined to throw difficulties in the way.

"Oh! we'll see to that presently, only bring the sack and some twine, or we shall be taken before we can move, and then there's two years a-piece for us,' replied the nimble Somersault.

"No other feasible idea occurring to any one, this plan was unanimously agreed to, and they all set to work earnestly to carry out the hideous murder of the noble Marmion. The sack was produced, poor Marmion's mouth sufficiently secured to prevent his howling, and he himself thrust into it, with his legs hobbled. Previous to doing which, however, the thieves unbuckled his collar, and hid it under the bedding: there was too much silver about it, for that to be sacrificed-notwithstanding the pressure from without.

"Now for the rope,' exclaimed Somersault; the preliminaries of this awful scene being thus far amicably settled.

"What the dickens do you want a rope for?' cried Bugle-eye, now all impatience to be off.

"You may be quite sure I'm not going to hang myself; but I should like to know,' returned his companion in guilt, 'how we are to get him to the water's-side without one.'

"At this explanation the woman went to a cupboard, and bringing out a coil of strong clothes line, threw it ruffian-like at their feet. A moment afterwards they were both in the lane, dragging along behind them, with brutal indifference, their bound and helpless prisoner.

"The locality of this den of thieves was admirably adapted for the villany in hand, if unfortunately at the bottom of the alley, or slum, there had not been just as they approached the River Thames, a high wall, which acted as the boundary of a coal-wharf, and but for which said barrier, it is most probable that the nocturnal raids upon the stock of "black diamonds" by the poor wretches of the quarter would have been of such a nature as to have shaken the foundation of the firmest of firms, and soon have sent them to that land of discovery-the Wilds of Bankruptcy and the Basinghall Brigands. It was indeed a most cut-throat purlieu, and the inhuman ruffians engaged in the sanguinary consequences of their trade were well calculated to keep up the infamous character of its inhabitants.

"The night also was well suited to the deed. It was past twelve o'clock; it rained heavily without intermission; the wind blew in boisterous gusts, and the darkness was up to what your poets call the visible pitch.

"Having arrived at the foot of their grand obstacle, the dreaded wall, which was at least twenty feet high, and double that in length, with a cart-shed at each end of it, they felt about for some particular spot in it, with the hopes of by mutual asssistance being able to scale Unsuccessful in their search, Somersault, whose anxiety to get rid of his burden and its terrible responsibities became momentarily greater, addressed himself in a low voice to Bugle-eye :

"Ben,' said he, we shall never do it without a leg-up. Just feel if Dick Holdfast's trap is home."

"The trembling Eye immediately disappeared; but in less than a minute mumbled from within the shed, 'All right, George, here it is.' "Wait a second,' answered Somersault, and I'll help you out with it: we can put it back when the job's done.'

"Whereupon, leaving poor Marmion in his misery on the stones, he joined his companion, and between them they quickly wheeled up a light cart close to the bottom of the wall. In another second they were all three in it—that is, the two robbers, and the vainly stuggling dog. Their next step was to fasten the neck of the sack as tightly as possible with one end of the clothes line, whilst Somersault undoing the coil, and making a sliding noose of the other, threw it over his arms,

and allowed it to take up its easy position by slightly contracting it around his waist. All this had passed in silence, and in the midst of the discouraging and fearful elements.

"Now Bugle,' whispered the adventurous conductor of the tragedy, 'you kneel on the rim of the cart whilst I try to reach the top brick: if I can't manage it, give us a full back, and stand upright. When I'm over the other side hand up the hanimal, and I'll haul.'

"Yes-but,' said the precautious Ben, who was also blessed with strict notions of that first law of Nature, known as self-preservation, how the deuce am I to join you?'

"Well then,' returned he of acrobatic name, ' pull yourself up first by the cord, and then hoist away at the tyke: I'll hold on, and wait for you.'

"Ah, that sounds more like it, George,' replied his almost deserted and suspicious comrade, in a more satisfied tone; 'so make a start as soon as you please.'

"The pair of them immediately, without further loss of time, commenced carrying out the attempt at their escape, as described, and which was their only remaining chance of salvation. After several futile endeavours on the part of Somersault to lay hold the top of the formidable barrier, by almost super-human exertions he eventually succeeded in doing so. His efforts were crowned with victory, and he stood on the wall, like a cock-of-the-walk, in defiance of all comers.

"This state of triumph, however, was but of very short duration : the unmistakeable sound of heavy descending footsteps, accompanied by a visible display of the ominous bull's-eye lanterns, proclaimed to them, without any doubt, the charge of the police and detectives into their hitherto safe retreat.

"With the single exclamation of They are here, Bugle,' he sprang from the parapet, and was out of sight. To the surprise of the party addressed, who held the slack of the rope to keep it clear, it did not run out, or follow the disappearing figure of the bold and intrepid dogstealer. A heavy blow-a dull crash-succeeded by one sharp and fatal groan-was all that could be distinguished; but it went straight to the heart of the now desperate Bugle-eye. Pulling the rope towards him with all his force, to ascertain if it was really fast, and strong enough to hold him, he cautiously began his hand-over-hand ascent to the summit of the impediment, pressed hard by the audible approach of the enemy. Swinging himself down as far as he could reach, by aid of the line, he landed in safety on the coals below; but not before he had been horrified by the spectacle of his dead companion in this foul and fatal crime, whose shivering corpse he had passed in his descent. The cause of the catastrophe was clear enough; the unfortunate Somersault, in his anxiety and excitement-it being also at the time the darkest of nights-had forgotten before he attempted to jump from the wall to pay attention to the position of the cord, which would otherwise have befriended him, but which, as it was, had in all probability slipped from its position, in his struggles to get up, from his

middle to his feet-the run of it also had become immovably jammed between the uppermost layer of bricks. The fearful consequences of this over-sight being-that the noose had tightened the instant he sprang forward, and, checking him in mid-air, had turned him completely topsy-turvy, and not being sufficiently long even to give him the chance of breaking his fall on the ground by his hands, had swung him head foremost with such an irresistible and sudden crash against the base of the wall, that it killed him on the spot. In this appalling situation he was shortly afterwards discovered by the police, who, foiled in their siege on the house, continued their fruitless pursuit over the other parts of the premises. The simple difference, you understand, between Somersault's cruel fate and that of the unfortunate diver's being that the former was hung with his head downwards, whilst the latter took his last drop' in a more legitimate manner, and after the most approved fashion. The beautiful Marmion, when recovered from his terrible sufferings, was restored with his collar to his grateful and loving master, to whom he was endeared a thousand times more than ever. It is supposed in the 'fancy' that Bugle-eye escaped to sea, or that he was drowned in the Thames; at any rate he was never either heard of or seen again!"

Just as Billy Brewel uttered the last words of this terrible dogstealer's untimely end, and before the company could return thanks, a loud shout, accompanied by general cheering from without, announced the arrival of one of the expected men of the coming day, at the same time the door flew open, and surrounded by his partizans and trainer, in marched one of those ferocious specimens of the British bull-dog, whose prototype, although filled with all the most dangerous qualities of the canine race, is yet not half so hideous in his nature, or cursed with the viciousness of that animal-man, whose repulsive tout ensemble we gazed upon on that evening which we had devoted to the study of degraded humanity.

THE SPORT OF THE PERIOD.

BY CECIL.

The season is juvenile, and it cannot be said to be precocious; very few packs can boast of good cub-hunting times, and there has not been much done since. The weather has been precarious, scent consequently indifferent, while many countries have been hard and hidebound, with ditches blind, and fences mysterious, till a frost, with snow, set in on the 27th of October, followed by a still sharper frost on the succeeding day, which was not without its good effects.