Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/303

 but very wrong—oh! very wrong. Perhaps we ought not even to speak about it."

"Nonsense!" said the now half-tipsy lad with an air of determination. "I should like to try it. Come, you know where I could have a pipe. Let's go." "Not for worlds," said the man with a look of remonstrance.

"Oh, yes you will," returned Stumps, rising.

"Well, you are a wilful man, and if you will I suppose you must," said the Jew.

He rose with apparent reluctance, paid the reckoning, and led his miserable victim into one of the numerous dens of iniquity which exist in the lowest parts of that city. There he furnished the lad with a pipe of opium, and, while he was in the state of semi-stupor resulting therefrom, removed his bag of treasure, which he found, to his delight, contained a far richer prize than he had anticipated, despite the quantity of trash with which it was partly filled.

Having secured this, he waited until Stumps had partially recovered, and then led him into one of the most crowded thoroughfares.

"Now, my boy," he said affectionately, "I think you are much better. You can walk alone."

"I should think I could," he replied, indignantly shaking off the man's grasp. "Wh—what d'ee take me for?"