The victim came, half awake, half dressed, and with an inch of dripping candle in his fingers. There was not a bed there, he said, nor in the town neither.
THE VICTIM CAME
I said I would sit in the dining-room till the time for the early train.
"Sure there's five beds in the dining-room," replied the boots, "and there's mostly two in every bed."
His voice was firm, but there was a wavering look in his eye.
"What about the billiard-room, Mike?" said the guard, in wooing tones.
"Ah, God bless you! we have a mattress on the table this minute!" answered the boots, wearily, "and the fellow that got the First Prize for Reels asleep on top of it!"
"Well, and can't ye put the palliasse on the floor under it, ye omadhawn?" said the guard, dumping my luggage and the salmon in the hall, "sure there's no snugger place in the house! I must run away home now, before Herself thinks I'm dead altogether!"