After I had appeased "the sacred rage of hunger," and added some works of supererogation in that line for the furtherance of my object, we emerged from our retreat, as "the iron tongue of midnight" was tolling twelve, which sounded to me like the knell of my companion's doom, for I felt confident that the time had now come for the _denouement_ of the two-act drama which we had been playing that evening. It seemed extremely improbable that there should be here any accommodating "Jim" to score down the little bill for future settlement. But there was. We went up to what was then the bar, but in these temperance times would be called the "office," and L. said to the presiding genius, with a familiar and confident air, "Just charge that to me, and I'll make it all right." "Rather all wrong," thought I. As we passed out into the darkness of the night and stood for a moment on the steps, I thought I discovered, by the faint light of a street lamp, my companion observing me with scrutinizing glances, thus seeming to indicate a suspicion on his part that our rapid acquaintance and companionship had not been without some design, which he was desirous of penetrating. Indeed a fear of this produced anything but agreeable reflections after we had separated, and I had retired to my lodgings. Could it be that a suspicion of my real object had prevented him from paying for the ale, and settling the bill at the restaurant? It seemed possible, certainly, yet under other circumstances I should have thought nothing of the occurrence, and he seemed to be satisfied with the "dodge" of the "railroad contractor." Then came a doubt as to the wisdom of the policy I had adopted, in allowing him to be at large, instead of arresting him at once on the disappearance of the decoy letter. Several days had elapsed since it was taken, and the probability of finding any part of its contents upon him, hardly seemed to warrant a resort to that course now; so, on the whole, I concluded to persevere in the cautious line of policy with which I had commenced. In the course of a conversation which I held with the aforementioned landlord, on the following day, the fact came to light that he had a claim against L., for money loaned. It occurred to me that an urgent application for its repayment might accomplish the desired object, and I requested the landlord to assist me in this way. He readily complied, and after a second appeal the debt was discharged, and among the money, which I lost no time in comparing with the description of that purloined from the letter, was a five dollar note that I at once identified as one of the stolen bills.