'A strange place, Sir John,' returned the locksmith, 'of a sad and
doleful kind. A strange place, where many strange things are heard and
seen; but few more strange than that I come to tell you of. The case is
urgent. I am sent here.'

'Not--no, no--not from the jail?'

'Yes, Sir John; from the jail.'

'And my good, credulous, open-hearted friend,' said Sir John, setting
down his cup, and laughing,--'by whom?'

'By a man called Dennis--for many years the hangman, and to-morrow
morning the hanged,' returned the locksmith.

Sir John had expected--had been quite certain from the first--that he
would say he had come from Hugh, and was prepared to meet him on that
point. But this answer occasioned him a degree of astonishment, which,
for the moment, he could not, with all his command of feature, prevent
his face from expressing. He quickly subdued it, however, and said in
the same light tone:

'And what does the gentleman require of me? My memory may be at
fault again, but I don't recollect that I ever had the pleasure of
an introduction to him, or that I ever numbered him among my personal
friends, I do assure you, Mr Varden.'

'Sir John,' returned the locksmith, gravely, 'I will tell you, as nearly
as I can, in the words he used to me, what he desires that you should
know, and what you ought to know without a moment's loss of time.'

Sir John Chester settled himself in a position of greater repose, and
looked at his visitor with an expression of face which seemed to say,
'This is an amusing fellow! I'll hear him out.'

'You may have seen in the newspapers, sir,' said Gabriel, pointing to
the one which lay by his side, 'that I was a witness against this man
upon his trial some days since; and that it was not his fault I was
alive, and able to speak to what I knew.'

'MAY have seen!' cried Sir John. 'My dear Mr Varden, you are quite
a public character, and live in all men's thoughts most deservedly.
Nothing can exceed the interest with which I read your testimony,
and remembered that I had the pleasure of a slight acquaintance with
you.---I hope we shall have your portrait published?'

'This morning, sir,' said the locksmith, taking no notice of these
compliments, 'early this morning, a message was brought to me from
Newgate, at this man's request, desiring that I would go and see him,
for he had something particular to communicate. I needn't tell you
that he is no friend of mine, and that I had never seen h