LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1025, 8 October 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

TWELVE OUNCES OP BLOOD. [“ Dublin University Magazine.”] ( Continued .) Jacob, when his uncle had safely locked th° street door, had leaped out of bed and applied his eye to the crack. When he saw how Tim was employed he returned to his bed, saying, as he composed himself once more, ‘ Just as I expected.’ In about a quarter of an hour the street door was cautiously un’oeked, and then the . n e at the foot of ’he stairs A moment after Tim’s door was pushed open, and the old man entered the room, followed by two stilvart policemen. «There he is !’ he cried, in a voice still tremulous with excitement Tim was now lying on his bed again, fast a»leep, and breathing stentorously. The policemen grinned as they approached him. * The chap’s drunk, ’ said one. ‘Take him,’ cried the uncle, furiously, ‘ don’t delay.’ ‘ He must have been clever to pick a lock in this state,’ said the other. ‘Bah!’cried tho old man, ‘can’t yon see the brandy? He’s drunk himself RoUsh since, to drown his wickedness.* I ‘Like enough,’ said policeman No. I, ‘ * Anyway tho lock’s picked.’

. p o they pulled him up, and with pome difficulty made him wake sufficien ly to walk between them He appear* d too stupefied to realise his position, and so was taken quietly away. There was a good deal of stumbling on the stairs, and some bad language on the part of the policemen, while the old man stood on the landing, and cursed the ungrateful youth ; bat Tim himself was lazed and silent. Only. w ! en they r ached the street he hook the men off and tried to run away, i'hey i aised the c y of ‘ stop thief,’ and soon c nght him; while half the neighborhood either came out of doors or hung out of window in scant morning attire, to ste, much to their surprise, young Tim Turner caught by two po icemen, hankcuffed, and led away. Curiosity and conjecture ran high and raged around. ‘ Well,’ cried one slipshod matron to another, across the narrow street, ‘ I ain’t surprised. Idleness leads to wickedness; and the old man’s been a fool to spoil the young one so.’ The street soon after went about its ordinary business; for there was nothing more to be seen ***** The next phase of this history need not be dwelled upon ; for we a sufficiently disag eeable d lily dish of p lice reports to know all about how such things *re managed The evidence was conclusive againit him; and Tim got six mon’hs’ hard labour. He made several speeches, which had no effect but that of causing unseemly laughter in the court He pointed out that he was entirely incapable of doing anything what ever on that night, in consequence of various ‘treats’ of which he had partaken on the previous evening He made several similar observations, but finding he carried no weight, subsided into a sullen silence, clenching his hands as they lay upon hia knees, with a suppressed savageness that was new in him. He performed his punishment, and came out of prison, looking healthier than when he went in; but with a sullenness in his face that took the place of a pleasant joviality which used to make him a favorite. He wandered back into his old haunts but he did not find any welcome Those who had known his uncle as well as himself regarded him in the light of a hopeless ingrate ami criminal; while the friends who had been chosen after h s own heart, in the old jolly day , did not much care to resume the acquaintanee when they saw how the gaolbird carried the mark of the prison in his face. He was soon sufficiently conscious of the fact that life was a different thing for him now. He succeeded in finding out that his old uncle had died not many weeks after his imprisonment, a-'d that his brother Jacob, who, it appeared, had been made the heir, Lad shut up the little shop, and was only to be seen in that dismal neighbourhood now and then. He haunted the street where the old shop stood from that lime. He lived somehow, by the doing' of odd jobs, for he could get no regular work where he was known,' and yet he seemed to have some fascination for the place. The little street urchins soon grew accustomed to see him skulking in the dark corners round the shop of an evening, and gave up taunting him ; while the sage elders would shake their heads and avow their conviction that he was after no good. Tim was a brawny', handsome fellow, and if he had not leirned to si uch and skulk would have looked mauly enough even in the i altered garments which were now his only ones. He throve in some mysterious way upon th scant, irregular food he obtained, and grew more sturdily muscular than of old. Possibly this might be owing to his general inability to obtain stimulants. He was continually sober now, from grim necessity. At last one evening as Tim stood in a dark corner opposite the closed shop, idly, his hands, from the force of habit, thrust through holes beyond whi -h no pocket remain' d, he gave a great start, and a terrible look came over his 'are. Ste| ping daint ly down the st eet ane a slight and dapper figa-e, apparently that of a gentleman and a dandy. What an unusual sight in this dirty street; surely Tim could have no interest in this apparition beyond mere curiosity ? Yet Tim trembled a little with the sudden excitement, for something n the gait of this gentleman was familiar to him. He felt certam that the fa. tidionslypicked footsteps down the street w uld pause at the door of the little old shop, and he was not mistaken. Ha-tily he stepped across ; and just as the gentleman had inserted the key, presented himself at lis side. But he was not noticed till, the door open the man turned a little as he entered, and hia eyes fell upon Tim’s face. And Tim saw. as he suspected, the familiar features of his brother Jacob. Familiar, yet unfamiliar. They had changed, in many ways, most conspicuously by that of ill health Jacob bad always been a weakling, and was, physically, about half the size of his brother Tim; but now his face shewed signs of positive sickness. The two men contrasted oddly under the circumstances; Tim, the jail-bird, just out o f prison, looked a muscular hero by the side of his brother, who had evidently been living in luxury while Tim suffered. ‘Jacob,’ remarked Tim, after they,had looked at each other in silence for a second or two, ‘ you are a devil ’ Jacob stepped inside the door, so as to be able to shut it quickly if he wanted to ; and he drew himself up to the utmost of his small stature, and smiled at I im. ‘ And have you really come here to tell me that ? ’ was all his reply. > You did it,’ cried Tim, his indignation suddenly rising to boiling point. *1 had time to think in that nice place you got me into, and I saw it all. I know you did it yourself, just to make the old man leave you all my money — ! ’ ‘Really,’ said Jacob, ‘you are getting clever. I thought my trick had been too simple even for you to find out—and yet you’ve done it! I congratulate you. Good night.’ ITo hi’ continued,}