"From the bottom of a well," said an Irishman.
"Good heavens!" said Pate, who had just arrived in company with Wiggins and Perch,—"good heavens! did Botts fall into a well?"
"And shure it's not for me to say how he got there. We found him in the well on his knees in the wather, and praying to the blessed Vargin and all the saints."
"I'm almost dead! I'll never get over it!" said Botts.
"Run for a doctor! run, Perch! run!" said Pate.
Perch went off at the double-quick in search of medical aid, while Pate and Wiggins conducted their friend to the hotel.
"Don't bring that man in here. I can't have my house covered with mud and filth. Take him to the bath-house and wash him," said the landlord.
Pate pleaded and implored, but the landlord was inexorable; and they were compelled to conduct the miserable man to the bath-house. With some difficulty he was divested of his clothing; and, while Wiggins assisted him in performing his ablutions, Pate proceeded to his apartment and procured a change of raiment. His two friends then led him to his room, where they found Perch with the doctor. The physician examined his patient, and discovered that no bones were broken, and that there was no internal injury of any sort. He ordered Botts a strong tonic, and, telling him to keep quiet in bed and he would be well in the morning, took his departure. Perch soon after left the room, saying that he had an engagement to walk with Miss Imogen Hazlewood. Pate and Wiggins sat by the bedside of their afflicted friend, who, with many a moan and dolorous ejaculation, told the story of his misfortune, which we will endeavor to abbreviate and relate in more intelligible language.
It will be recollected that after Botts had executed his last will and testament, and addressed letters of farewell to his friends, he had proceeded to the outskirts of the town, and walked to and fro over the common, meditating on his approaching end. About the middle of the night, as he continued to walk with his gaze fixed on the star which he had selected for his future abode, he tumbled into an unfinished well, about twelve feet deep, with six inches of water at the bottom. It being night, and he being under the earth, his loud cries for assistance were unheard, and he remained in the well until a late hour in the morning, when the Irish laborers discovered him on his knees in the water praying fervently; he having experienced a change of heart, and repented of the great crime he had intended to commit.
While Pate and Wiggins were consoling their friend, they were startled by loud shrieks from a female voice in an adjacent apartment.