A BLACK DEED. 107 



door, and no one on the outside. Quicker than I can tell ye, 

 I whipped out a piece of moist clay, which I always carried in 

 my pocket, and there was " 



" The mark of the key itself," added Job Sweety, impatiently. 



" Exactly so," continued Cupid, " and the key back in the 

 lock, and no one a morsel the wiser." 



"You're a clever fellow!" exclaimed Job Sweety. "The 

 rest I can guess," continued he. " You got an old key " 



" Filed and scoured it," said Cupid, taking up the thread of 

 his narrative, " and the original one won't open the door easier. 

 That I know, from having tried it." 



" Well done, and done well ! ' : ejaculated Job Sweety, and 

 possessing himself of the key, he took an abrupt leave of Cupid, 

 and was soon far from the precincts of " Paddy's Goose." 



CHAPTER XXII. 



Upcct a dark and starless night, when the wind moaned through 

 the trees, already wearing the decayed and decaying tints of 

 approaching winter, a man crept, with stealthy tread, towards 

 the door of a certain stable in Newmarket. With back inclined, 

 and pausing at each step to listen with suspicious dread, his 

 movements betokened a mind but ill at ease. It was Job 

 Sweety preparing to accomplish one of the blackest deeds of his 

 anything but spotless existence. 



With a freedom which is sometimes accorded to the his- 

 torian, the particular cause shall now be divulged of Job 

 Sweety creeping, with stealthy tread, towards the door of a cer- 

 tain stable in Newmarket, to gain which he had now but to 

 make some half-dozen strides. 



Greatly to his own astonishment, and contrary to his final 

 expectations, in the result of the race, he found himself a large 

 winner upon the Grand Duke Michael Stakes, when Puffy 



