Page:Sylvester Sound the Somnambulist (1844).djvu/433

"No, that was impossible; and as this entirely supersedes the necessity for any one sitting up with me. I want you to sleep in my room for the present, in order that I may be still secure."

"Just so: I see, sir: a capital plan."

"You have, I presume, no objection?"

"Objection, sir! No, not the leasest in life. I can have no objection."

"Well, then, you can bring your bed and bedstead, and place it by the side of mine, and—"

"I'll manage that, sir."

"There's plenty of room, I believe?"

"Oceans! But how long, sir, have you been going on so?"

"I have reason to believe that I have been a somnambulist for years."

"Indeed!"

"You remember that, five years ago, a variety of pranks were played here?"

"To be sure I do."

"Those pranks, I have not the slightest doubt, were played by me. The horse was taken out of the stable, you know, frequently, and galloped round the country during the night, and brought home again in a state of exhaustion."

"Well, but you don't mean to say you did that?"

"I have no more doubt of it, than I have of my own existence."

"Well, sir; but—send I may live—could you go to the stable, and mount the horse, and gallop like that, all the while you were asleep?"

"I have done very many more extraordinary things than that."

"I wonder you didn't pitch off and break your neck. I couldn't have believed it, if you hadn't told me; and I can't understand it, I can't brain it now."

"And then the ghost: why, I was the ghost!"

"You was! Oh, what a kick up there's been about that ghost."

"What, since I left?"

"The other day, sir. You know Drant, sir—Obadiah Drant—the man you was speaking to me about, you know, sir? Well, as he always knows everything nobody else knows, he set it about that he knew who the ghost was. He knew: he knew the man: and, on being pressed to tell who it was, he said that he knew that Bob Potts was the ghost. Well, this very soon got to Bob Potts's ears, and as soon as it did, Bob Potts hunted him up, and said to him quietly, 'A gentleman wants just to see you on the common.' 'Who is it,' said Drant. 'Oh, you'll see,' said Bob; 'he wants to give you something: you'd better bring Mr. Pokey with you.' Well, innocent enough, he went, and took Pokey with him; and when he got there, in course he asked where the gentleman was. 'I am the gentleman,' said Bob, 'as wants to see you: I am the gentleman as wants to give you something. I'm the ghost, aint I? You know I'm the ghost? Now, you must give me a sound out-and-out throshing, or I shall give you one: so pull off your coat.' 'Just look you here,' said Drant, 'if you lay a finger upon me, I'll take the law on you.' 'Never mind the law,' said Bob; 'one on us must have