Tom went into the billiard-room a while and watched the playing. Then he read the papers once more. About nine o’clock he went up to his room.
“I wish I hadn’t taken a room with this Livingston,” he thought to himself. “He may be all he pretends to be, but he is a stranger, and it may be dangerous to trust him. Suppose he should be a swindler?”
This set Tom to thinking. He had about seventy dollars with him, including the fifty he had received from Mr. Sharp.
“What’s to prevent his taking this money when I am asleep?” he considered.
By way of precaution, Tom took out all the money but five dollars from his pocket-book and tucked it into one of his stockings. His watch he tucked into the other. These he concealed beneath the sheet at the bottom of the bed.
“It won’t do any harm,” he thought, “though it may be unnecessary. My friend Livingston wouldn’t feel particularly complimented if he knew what I am doing; but I mean to keep him from temptation.”
More easy in mind after he had taken these precautions, Tom composed himself to sleep. It was not long before he was unconscious, for his walk had made him weary, though he did not realize it at the time.
How long he slept Tom did not know, but it was actually about twelve o’clock when he awoke, and by the moonlight that streamed in through the window, detected Livingston examining his pockets. He had placed his clothes on a chair beside the bed. If Tom had not foreseen that this might happen, he would probably have been startled. As it was, he was rather amused when he pictured to himself Livingston’s disappointment at his small booty. Desirous of getting all the fun he could out of it, he pretended to be asleep still.
Livingston at that moment was opening Tom’s pocket-book. The moonlight was sufficient to show him the contents.
“Confound it!” Tom heard him mutter; “the boy’s only got five dollars. It isn’t worth half the trouble I’ve taken. The young beggar! I thought, to be sure, he had thirty or forty dollars with him, judging from his clothes. However, I’ll take the five. His watch will make up, perhaps. I can get something at the pawn-broker’s for it.”