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Rh and reclining again he pulled the filthy blankets up to his chin.

Pete's voice had lowered as he approached; but it had perceptibly thickened since his departure, and he stumbled as he ascended the steps which led up to the porch.

"Not a  bit of 'snow' in the whole   burg!" he ended with a hiccough of disgust. "They don't seem to know what it is, Tony my boy, but I got the next best thing to it." "Whiskey?" Tony's voice was not over-enthusiastic.

"And laudanum. A foxy old hick in the first farmhouse down the road sold me the booze, and I got the other in the drugstore. We'll make a night of it."

"Gimme dat bottle an' go feed your boid foist," Tony interrupted, to Odell's vast relief. "I fixed de tray o' eats 'cause youse was gone so  long I figgered dat youse had blew."

The door opened and Pete staggered in, seized the tray, and departed; while Tony seated himself astride a chair and raised the bottle to his lips.

The fates had been more kind than Odell had dared to hope. He knew the swift and deadening effect of the mixture which Pete had brought; and when once the men succumbed to its influence escape would be assured. He strained his ears to listen for the direction from which Pete would return, for he had as yet no idea where Miller was confined. He had heard the former cross the porch and descend the steps again, but that was all. Could it be that Miller was in some other building, an outhouse or shed perhaps? If so he could scarcely hope to find it in the darkness; and his subordinate, gagged, would be un-