My first impulse was to crack his head with a billiard cue; but my second was to refrain from this attention, because he was between me and the cue rack.

The second impulse was plainly the soundest, so I refrained, and proceeded to compromise.

I redeemed the property at former rates, after deducting ten per cent.

for use of ladder, it being my ladder, and, next day we sent down for the expert once more, and had the third story attached to the alarm, for three hundred dollars.
"By this time the 'annunciator' had grown to formidable dimensions.

It had forty-seven tags on it, marked with the names of the various rooms and chimneys, and it occupied the space of an ordinary wardrobe.