"My God! Is Evelyn in another scrape?" ejaculated the merchant prince; "I will pay for no more of his misdeeds. There's no use of talking about it. I'll not go his bail, if he rots in the Tombs. I'll--" Mr. Somers doggedly folded his arms, and sat bolt upright in his chair. With his contracted features, spare form and formal white cravat, he looked the very picture of an unrelenting father. "Come, hoss, there's no use of that." "Hoss! Do you apply such words to me," indignantly echoed the merchant prince. "Be calm," soothingly remarked Blossom. "Lay low. Keep dark. Jist answer me one question: Has your son Evelyn a _soot_ o' rooms in the upper part o' this house?" "What do you ask such a question for?" and Mr. Somers opened his eyes again. "He has all the rooms on the third floor, in the body of the mansion--there are four in all." "Very good. Now, is Evelyn at home?" asked Blossom. "Don't come so near. The smell of brandy is offensive to me. Faugh!" "You'll smell brimstone, if you don't take keer!" exclaimed the indignant Blossom. "To think o' sich ingratitude from an old cock like you, when I've come to keep that throat o' yourn from bein' cut by robbers." "Robbers!" and this time Mr. Somers fairly started from his seat. "When I've come to purtect your _jugular_,--yes, you needn't wink,--your _jugular!_ Oh, it was not for nothing that a Roman consul once remarked that republics is ungrateful." "Robbers? Robbers! What d'ye mean? Speak--speak--" Blossom laid his hand upon the merchant's shoulder. "If you'll promise to keep a secret, and not make a fuss. I'll tell you all. If you go for raisin' a hellabaloo, I'll walk out and leave your jugular to take care of itself." "I promise, I promise," ejaculated the merchant. "Then, while you are sittin' in that ere identical chair, there's two crackmen--burglars, you know,--hid up-stairs in your son's room. They're a-waitin' until you put out the lights, and go to sleep, and then,--your cash-box and jugulars the word?--Why, I wouldn't insure your throat for all your fortin." The merchant prince was seized with a fit of trembling. "Robbers! in my house! Astounding, a-s-t-o-u-n-d-i-n-g! How did they get in?" "By your son's night-key, and the front door. You see I was arter these crackmen to-night, and found 'em in a garret of the Yaller Mug. You never patronize the Yaller Mug, do you?" Mr. Somers nodded "No," with a spasmodic shake of the head. "Jist afore I pitched into 'em, I listened outside of the garret door, and overheard their plot to conceal themselves in Evelyn's room, until you'd all gone to bed, and then commence operations on your cash-box and jugular. One o' 'em's a convict o' eleven years' standin'. He's been regularly initiated into all the honors of Auburn and Cherry Hill." "And you arrested them?"