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 *sufficient light it became a very creditable telescope. I fitted the point into my eye, and jutted forth the handle with great nicety.

"Venus is in trine," says I, with this strange telescope trained upon the stars.

"And how is Mars to-night?" says the Captain, with a gallant interest.

"Mars is out of season, sir," says I. "He is at no advantage. But Saturn and some others are wonderfully bright. Come up and gaze, sir. 'Twill interest you rarely, I am certain, and I have here the finest little instrument that was ever fashioned by the artifice of Italy; besides, the situation of my observatory is most admirably good."

But the very watchful cat upon the ladder betrayed no disposition to come up and hunt minutely for the mouse.

"If you will lend me the telescope," says he, "I think I shall find my present station equally excellent for the purposes of observation."

When he uttered the phrases "for the purposes of observation," he looked as simple as a child. But I had a desire to strike him from the ladder all the same. Not by a single word had he let me know as yet whether design or accident had brought him of all places to this particular ladder at this particular hour. Long as I had fenced he was as inscrutable as his solitaire. I was not wiser in one instance than when I had begun. Yet I was entitled to a guess, and alas! it was a gloomy one.

"Captain Grantley," says I, with a foot-tap of