The attack upon the man was so sudden, and withal so totally unexpected by that individual, that, for the moment, he was too terrified to cry out. That moment was precious to him, for before he could recover presence of mind sufficient to have the least idea of what best to do, one of the thieves had him by the throat with such a clutch that he began to get black in the face. Blodget ran over from the other side of the way in another moment. ‘Who is it?’ he asked. ‘Somebody going, no doubt, to give an alarm,’ said the man who had hold of him. ‘Now is that possible?’ said Blodget. ‘It is, captain.’ ‘Dear me, what interfering people there are in the world, to be sure. Has he a cravat on?’ ‘Yes, captain.’ ‘That will do.’ Blodget took the unfortunate man’s cravat from his neck, and in another moment wound it round again so tightly and tied it in a knot behind, that his doing more than just slightly breathe was out of the question. ‘Now,’ he added, ‘one slight tap on the head just to make him remember us, and all is well.’ The tap on the head that Blodget so facetiously called a slight remembrancer consisted in a severe blow with an iron jemmy, beneath which the victim fell to the ground as if he had been struck dead. ‘Push him into his own passage,’ said Blodget, ‘and then close his door quietly. It will be quite a pity to disturb the, no doubt, highly respectable family to which he belongs.’ This was done, and with so little trouble, too, had the whole affair been accomplished that the man was disposed of, and Blodget was back again to the house before one would have thought it possible to do so much.’ ‘Now, come in all of you,’ he said. ‘Yes, captain.’ ‘You did that well, captain.’ ‘Hush, we will talk about that another time, when we have plenty of time to do so, for we have none now.’ ‘Yes, captain.’ ‘You know your separate directions now. Here we are in the house, and our grand object is, of course, to do our work here and then to get out of it as quickly as we can.’ ‘Yes—yes, that’s it.’ ‘A light!’ One of the thieves—it was the one whose appointed duty it was to go up stairs with Blodget—lit a loco foco match, and then as it burned up they all started, for one of the first things they saw was a servant apparently fast asleep, but, in reality, dead drunk in a huge chair. ‘Confound the rascal,’ said Blodget, ‘who now would have supposed he was so near to us?’ ‘He sleeps.’ ‘Are you sure of that? Is it a cat’s sleep?’ ‘No, captain, that is a sound sleep.’ ‘It looks sound.’ ‘He is as drunk as blazes, captain, I can see. Ah, he has been at the decanters and bottles after the guests have gone.’ ‘No doubt about that,’ said Blodget, with a smile; ‘and I don’t mind saying that it was a part of my calculation in this little affair, that the servants would be mostly drunk, and so in too deep a sleep to hear us, or to mind us if they did hear us.’ ‘Ah, captain, you know how to act about it, if any one in the world does.’