"With all the pleasure in life, my dear sir," said the figure, nipping off the tail of Listado's exclamation as if it had been a leech in the hands of my friend Majendie; "I will do any thing to oblige you, and d--d you shall be with all the comfort in life; only wait a moment;"--and he thereupon took a small very natty toasting fork out of his coat pocket; but, in the act, burnt his fingers against his red-hot tail. "Curse the tail," quoth he, as he pulled out the joints of the fork, until it was about a yard long. All this while Listado, blasted by the deep red glare into a dark crimson, lay like a big lobster newly boiled, looking at the physician's preparations, apparently fascinated, and without the power of motion. The figure now looked at me over his shoulder, and winked knowingly, when some vapour, like an escape from the safety-valve of a steam-boiler, puffed out of his mouth; but he apologized, and said, he had been smoking, although the flavour had more of brimstone than tobacco in it. "Good by, Mr Brail; I will come for _you_ by and by."--"You need not hurry, my dear fellow," thought I;--and so saying, he, with all the coolness in life, clapped the fork into Listado's stern-frame, and, begging pardon for the trouble he was putting him to, lifted him, writhing like an impaled frog, on the instrument, and as if he really had been no heavier. He then calmly walked right through the solid wall with him, as if it had been a cloud, and disappeared. I could hear Listado roaring lustily all the while, and the physician making numberless apologies, always concluding with "I shall be as gentle with you, Mr Listado, as your request to be d--d will permit." At last the sounds died away, and I began to think of going to sleep; when an instrument that I at once knew to be our friend the physician's fork was thrust into me from below, through the mattrass. "Hillo, hillo, hillo," roared I; "this will never do, by"---- "What the devil do you grunt and growl so much in your sleep for?" shouted Listado. "Devil!" quoth I, rubbing my eyes; "oh! confound the poached eggs."