260 A PRACTICAL JOKE. 



and declared that there was some wild animal in his bed and 

 that he meant to fire at it. On this the men in the other part of 

 the room, who had been awakened by the yells, said that if he 

 did they would fire at him, as it would probably bring up the 

 vigilance committee. One of them then jumped out and drew 

 down the bed-clothes exposing the cap. Fox's rage was 

 awful, and he swore that if he could find out the man who 

 had put it there he would shoot him " on sight." I naturally 

 did not inform him who it was, and no one else knew, so he 

 got into bed again using awful language. I let him lie about 

 half an hour, when I pulled the string and off came his bed- 

 clothes, the string coming away in my hands as I intended it 

 should. He sat up and gasped for breath, speechless with rage, 

 but when he found his voice my pen cannot do justice to his 

 language. I of course pretended to sleep through it all, and was 

 not suspected even when I asked him if he had not had rather 

 a disturbed night, as I fancied I heard some sounds coming 

 from the direction of his bed during the night. He glared at 

 me for a moment, but as I kept my countenance he walked off" 

 with an oath. 



While I was in the town two Englishmen arrived, on their 

 way to California, and as they were quiet well-behaved men 

 we got to be very friendly, the occupants of the other beds 

 being such a rough lot, so we used to lie awake talking till far 

 into the night. One of these two men had been a prize- 

 fighter who had made money and now meant to go into 

 business in San Francisco. They proposed one evening that 

 we should go round and see the sights, promising to stand by 

 me should there be any need for it. So we first of all visited 

 one of the gambling-dens, which we found so full of smoke that 



