giving one sign of vitality by a regular tramp--tramp--tramp--upon the frozen ground, so far as any one was disposed to listen, and spreading consternation throughout the vicinity. The affair at length became unendurable. Women were afraid to go into the street, and, for that, a good many men too, and it was really so serious, that, as I learned, it was resolved to form what is called, I believe, a cordon, and gradually approaching the place simultaneously from every avenue, so to inclose him that escape would be impossible. Being much acquainted with the people of that part of the town, I was invited to join the company, and accordingly drove in seasonably for the purpose. Certainly, most sober people believed the whole was but some trick, which it only needed reasonable pains to discover and defeat. The mysterious figure, it seemed, continued to walk, ignorant of or indifferent to our devices. "There were three main avenues, by streets, to the premises, together with a narrow passage way leading from one of the streets to another. At the appointed hour we duly assembled on our several stations. Our director was 'a rude and boisterous captain of the sea'"--(for Uncle Richard could sometimes be poetical, at least in the way of quoting Shakespeare). "It had been arranged by him that, being on our posts, at a fixed moment, we should move rapidly up the several avenues and so join forces as to form a circle inclosing the open space, and gradually contracting our company, if the rogue was then within our compass we should have him sure. The arrangement had been made in profound secrecy, and if any there were traitors, I was not aware of it. Sure enough there was our guest on his usual stroll. As our circle speedily drew in, and just as hands were stretched out to seize him--presto, as the jugglers say--he was gone!" "By the jumping gingerbread!" exclaimed Thurlow, our uncle's hired man, springing from his chair by the wall, outside of our family party,--seeing this was Christmas night. "Oh dear sus!" cried Sally Bannocks, our own particular help of many years, from the like position. "Our detective band," resumed my uncle, "looked at one another in amazement, and after some hard swearing from a few of the roughest, and the exchange of a hasty 'good-night,' dispersed, as far as convenient in companies of two or three, and departed, a good deal disconcerted, to their several places of abode. The same experiment was tried on two or three other occasions, as I was informed by friends, with no better success. Spectre or not, he always found means to elude them; and there were always those who, having no other means of accounting for his evasion, insisted upon it that he must have had confederates among those who sought to arrest him." "Could he not have escaped slyly into the house?" asked some incredulous inquirer.