Old Specie, the Treasury Detective; or, The Harbor Lights of New York — page 141: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

OLD SPECIE. 133 A gurgling, spitting sound smote his ear, as of liquid passing through a faucet. The brown jug was in front of a keg. It evidently held beer, with which the hard-work- ing patriots meant to refresh themselves while labor- ing at their task. Somehow or other the gurgling sound made Old Specie extraordinarily dry. Suddenly he felt a thrill of alarm. He was about to betray himself. An uncontrollable desire to sneeze had set in. There was undoubtedly dust in the straw that lay in the barrel. His sudden entrance had caused this to rise, and entering his nostrils it had brought about this dan- gerous climax. He immediately tried to shut it off by rubbing the sides of his nose. The result was a diminutive sneeze that sounded between a snort and a squeak. He again looked through the opening between the staves to see if Snyder had become alarmed. ‘“Seat!’? exclaimed the other, striking his hands together with a sharp report. A rat actually must have run across the cellar floor at the time, for he immediately threw a wooden mallet at something. This let the detective down easy. He was not discovered. By this time the foam was boiling over the sides of the brown jug. Snyder had to jump after the mallet, as it was — indispensable in shutting the stop cock of the faucet, and the jug ran over. Growling at the mess, Snyder picked up lamp and Gomichboo S) (E(0) =|