There is also an old saying that you shouldn’t laugh till you’re out of the wood. Jim proved the truth of both sayings on this occasion, for, just as Koko finished his taunting speech, Jim clutched him round the ribs, and, with a prodigious output of nervous energy, threw the little man clean over his head. Koko flew crash into one of the rotten old pawn-broking cupboards with which the place was lined, and such was the force with which he was impelled that his head and shoulders went right through the door of the cupboard. Before he could extricate himself, Mortimer had pinned his hands to his sides. "Will you give in?" demanded Jim. "I will," murmured Koko from within the cupboard. "And take what I owe you?" "Yes--let me out of this old clo’ hole, will you?" "Certainly." Thereupon, with a neat wrench, Jim liberated his friend, and Koko rose to his feet, looking battered and sorry for himself. "You ought to know better than to scrap with me, young fellow," said Jim; "you ought to know it’s no use." Koko rubbed his bald head ruefully. "Give me a bran mash," he said; "that winded me." "Right you are," said the Long ’Un, taking a glass jar off one of the shelves. "Steady!" cried Koko, observing the label on the jar; "that’s prussic acid." Jim, however, got two tumblers and proceeded to measure out a couple of drams. "No--I keep my whisky in this jar," he said, drawing some fresh water from the tap; "it’s safer here. Mrs Brown, my old lady upstairs, has a liking for whisky, and used to help herself out of my bottle when I was out--so I got a clean jar, put a prussic acid label on it, filled it with whisky, and now she hunts in vain." "Smart man, Jim," laughed Koko, who then proceeded to roll out the notes and put them carefully away in his pocket-book. "You see," said Jim, when they had settled themselves down by the fire, "I’ve been catching on about here lately." "Cutting out the bearded man?" "Something like that. I was going down Pine Court soon after you last looked me up, when I saw a group of women talking excitedly round a doorway. I had a case on the top floor of the house. ’Wot I says is,’ I heard a very fat woman remark, ’there ain’t no symptoms to go by. ’E guessed it!’