’I wouldn’t like to be him, then
(as you don’t like names), when he breaks it
out to her; that’s all,’ said Dennis.
’She’s one of them fine, black-eyed, proud
gals, as I wouldn’t trust at such times with
a knife too near ’em. I’ve seen some
of that sort, afore now. I recollect one that
was worked off, many year ago—and there
was a gentleman in that case too—that says
to me, with her lip a trembling, but her hand as steady
as ever I see one: “Dennis, I’m near
my end, but if I had a dagger in these fingers, and
he was within my reach, I’d strike him dead
afore me;”—ah, she did—and
she’d have done it too!’
Strike who dead?’ demanded Hugh.
‘How should I know, brother?’ answered
Dennis. ’She never said; not she.’
Hugh looked, for a moment, as though he would have
made some further inquiry into this incoherent recollection;
but Simon Tappertit, who had been meditating deeply,
gave his thoughts a new direction.
‘Hugh!’ said Sim. ’You have
done well to-day. You shall be rewarded.
So have you, Dennis.—There’s no young
woman you want to carry off, is there?’
‘N—no,’ returned that gentleman,
stroking his grizzly beard, which was some two inches
long. ‘None in partickler, I think.’
‘Very good,’ said Sim; ’then we’ll
find some other way of making it up to you. As
to you, old boy’—he turned to Hugh—’you
shall have Miggs (her that I promised you, you know)
within three days. Mind. I pass my word
for it.’
Hugh thanked him heartily; and as he did so, his laughing
fit returned with such violence that he was obliged
to hold his side with one hand, and to lean with the
other on the shoulder of his small captain, without
whose support he would certainly have rolled upon the
ground.
The three worthies turned their faces towards The
Boot, with the intention of passing the night in that
place of rendezvous, and of seeking the repose they
so much needed in the shelter of their old den; for
now that the mischief and destruction they had purposed
were achieved, and their prisoners were safely bestowed
for the night, they began to be conscious of exhaustion,
and to feel the wasting effects of the madness which
had led to such deplorable results.
Notwithstanding the lassitude and fatigue which oppressed
him now, in common with his two companions, and indeed
with all who had taken an active share in that night’s
work, Hugh’s boisterous merriment broke out
afresh whenever he looked at Simon Tappertit, and vented
itself—much to that gentleman’s indignation—in
such shouts of laughter as bade fair to bring the
watch upon them, and involve them in a skirmish, to
which in their present worn-out condition they might
prove by no means equal. Even Mr Dennis, who
was not at all particular on the score of gravity
or dignity, and who had a great relish for his young
friend’s eccentric humours, took occasion to
remonstrate with him on this imprudent behaviour,
which he held to be a species of suicide, tantamount
to a man’s working himself off without being
overtaken by the law, than which he could imagine
nothing more ridiculous or impertinent.
