RAT. (smiling) You don’t say so?
POS. Well, in I rushed, and the first thing I saw was——
RAT. What?
POS. Nothing; the room was in total darkness, and the next instant I found myself face to face with a gigantic housebreaker about seven foot high, with two pair of pistols in each hand, and there, extended upon the hearth rug, with her head on the fender lay my poor cousin in a dead faint, and as pale as a sheet.
RAT. (smiling) But how the deuce did you manage to see all this when the room was in total darkness?
POS. What of that? everybody knows that housebreakers are always as pale as a sheet when they faint away; I mean women are always seven feet high—no, housebreakers—really you interrupt me so I don’t know what I’m talking about.
RAT. (smiling) Well?
POS. Well, though I was unarmed, I instantly rushed upon the two ruffians.
RAT. Two ruffians?