He had the satisfaction to perceive
that Brooks had gradually accommodated himself not a little to the
element in which his brother-in-law, Tongs, was already floating
happily; and the boy, his son, already wore the features of one over
whose senses the strong liquor was momentarily obtaining the mastery.
But these signs did not persuade him into any relaxation of his labors;
on the contrary, encouraged by success, he plied the draughts more
frequently and freely than before, and with additional evidence of the
influence of the potation upon those who drank, when he found that he
was enabled, unperceived, to deposit the contents of his own tumbler, in
most instances, under the table around which they gathered. In the cloud
of smoke encircling them, and sent up from their several pipes, Bunce
could perceive the face of his colleague in the conspiracy peering in
occasionally upon the assembly, and at length, on some slight pretence,
he approached the aperture agreeably to the given signal, and received
from the hands of the landlord a vial containing a strong infusion of
opium, which he placed cautiously in his bosom, and awaited the moment
of more increased stupefaction to employ it.
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